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Harry Atkinson and the Christchurch Socialist Church, 1890-1905

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Harry Atkinson and the Christchurch Socialist Church, 1890-1905 ! ‘To me, Socialism is not a set of dogmas but a living principle’: Harry Atkinson and the Christchurch Socialist Church, 1890-1905 By James E. Taylor A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Victoria University of Wellington 2010 ! Abstract In the early 1890s Harry Atkinson, the subject of this thesis, travelled to England and spent a year as foundation secretary of the Manchester and Salford Labour Church. In Manchester Atkinson worked closely with the Churchʼs founder John Trevor, took part in Labour Church services and worked with a variety of British socialist intellectuals and activists including Ben Tillett, Edward Carpenter and Robert Blatchford. Atkinson returned to New Zealand in late 1893 and three years later founded the Socialist Church in Christchurch. This was not a Church in the traditional sense—rather, it was a site for the debate, discussion and dissemination of radical and socialist literature and ideas, and a platform for political agitation and social reform. Its creed was to ‘promot[e] a fellowship amongst those working for the organisation of Society on a basis of Brotherhood and Equality’. Members of the Church included Jack McCullough, James and Elizabeth McCombs and Jim Thorn. The critical, yet downplayed, role that Atkinson played working behind the scenes as an important mentor and conduit in the emergent socialist sub- culture in Christchurch from 1896 to 1905 has been for the most part unexplored in New Zealand labour historiography. This thesis addresses this imbalance and examines the intellectual and associational activity of Harry Atkinson during the period 1890 to 1905 and reconsiders the work and key concerns of the Christchurch Socialist Church. It argues that the form of ethical socialism Atkinson experienced in Manchester, and later promulgated through the Socialist Church, has been mischaraterised as vague or, inaccurately, Christian Socialist. By situating Atkinson’s beliefs and activities within a wider transnational context of 1890s ‘New Life’ socialism, we can see his ideas and work as part of a broader ‘world of labour’, shaped by multi-directional flows and contacts. The varied networks through which Atkinson was exposed to books and ideas are illustrated and the thesis attempts to trace the diversity of his, and others, associational activity. It suggests that the colonial New Zealand socialism of the 1890s was not ‘without doctrine’, and that individuals engaged in richer intellectual and associational lives than is often acknowledged. However, it is shown that Atkinson and members of the Church, though inspired by foreign or overseas experiences, ideas and literature, focused primarily on local issues. These are also surveyed and include agitation for municipal government, female equality and the radical reform of democratic institutions. It is argued that a reconsideration of the lived experience of Atkinson and his wider circle provides a lens to investigate some important aspects of colonial New Zealand radicalism and socialism, outside the usual foci of trade unions, the workplace and formal labour politics. i Acknowledgments Many thanks to my original supervisors Professors Melanie Nolan and Don MacRaild. Both departed during the time I worked on this project and Jim McAloon saw me through to completion over the last year with patience. To all three, as well as the usual duties of supervision, thanks also for your mentorship. You have all taught me valuable lessons. I have been assisted in research inquiries by a number of people. Peter Lineham was particularly helpful. Not only did he provide me with his notes on O’Bryen Hoare, but he also introduced me to his own students Wayne Facer and Geoff Troughton who kindly shared material. Gary J. Tee obligingly provided details about Frederick Frankland. Thanks also to various archivists and librarians: in Wellington at the Alexander Turnbull Library and the Beaglehole Room, VUW; in England, the staff at Modern Records Centre, Warwick University and Labour History Archive and Study Centre, Manchester. Bob Tristram read over drafts and proffered thoughtful critiques of my work. Vince O’Malley and Bruce Stirling at HistoryWorks provided part-time work. I am grateful for other forms of funding. I was awarded an F. P. Wilson Scholarship in New Zealand History, a Herbert Sutcliffe Scholarship for MA by Thesis and a FHSS research grant by VUW. I also recieved a New Zealand Post-Graduate Study Abroad Award. The latter two sources funded my research in England. To my friends and fellow postgraduates, there are numerous people to thank for their support. I cannot name some without leaving out others. You know who you are. Deepest thanks too to my family. To my grandmother Grace Alp who read drafts and took a keen interest in this project. My sister Gabrielle who offered encouragement. To my Mum for your unconditional support. And finally, to Kate for your faith, good humour and love. ii Rose and Harry Atkinson. Christchurch, May 1901. Miscellaneous papers - The Labour Churches and New Zealand by H Roth, 0071-18, Ranstead, William, 1859-1944: Papers, MS Papers-0071, Alexander Turnbull Library. iii Table of Contents Abbreviations! v Chapter One: Introduction! 1 Chapter Two: Early Life and Wellington! 21 Chapter Three: The Manchester and Salford Labour Church! 42 Chapter Four: The Christchurch Socialist Church, 1893-1899! 67 Chapter Five: The Christchurch Socialist Church, 1899-1905! 108 Chapter Six: Discussion and Conclusion! 125 Bibliography! 146 iv Abbreviations Organisations and legislation referred to in the text: ASE!!= Amalgamated Society of Engineers ASRS!! = Amalgamated Society of Railway Engineers CTLC !! = Canterbury Trades and Labour Council CWI !!= Canterbury Women's Institute FOL!!= Federation of Labour IC&A Act != Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act (1894) ILP !!= Independent Labour Party (UK) MHR!!= Member of the House of Representatives MPC!!= Member of the Provincial Council MUIOOF!= Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows NCW !! = National Council of Women NZLP!! = New Zealand Labour Party NZSP!! = New Zealand Socialist Party PLA !!= Progressive Liberal Association PLL !!= Political Labour League SDF !!= Social Democratic Federation (UK) TLC!!= Trades and Labour Council WCTU!= Women’s Christian Temperance Union Archival repositories: ATL!!= Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington MRC !!= Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick v Chapter One: Introduction For a period 1890-93 I had something to do with some of the people connected with the movement of this time in England. Much of the history recorded in these writings is a part of the lives of every adult amongst us today but only some of the older ones have been connected with many events of importance of the earlier days that are now brought into the light & were the forerunner of these later developments.1 In 1897 the British socialist Ben Tillett visited New Zealand. Exhausted after a decade of political, legal and industrial defeats, he suffered from ‘profound nervous breakdown and depression’.2 Because Tillett’s visit was primarily for convalescence it has for the most part been passed over by New Zealand labour historians, barely registering compared to the prominence of the journeys of Beatrice and Sidney Webb, H.D. Lloyd, Tom Mann and his own later visits. Tillett himself only briefly mentions it in his autobiography.3 In Christchurch, where he was based for most of the time, he stayed with Harry Atkinson, nephew of the former Colonial Premier, Sir H. A. Atkinson, and a member of the Atkinson-Richmond clan. Harry Atkinson was not a union leader, nor ever held high rank in a union. Unlike a number of his relations, he never became a politician and only once ran a shortly aborted political campaign. In fact, he rarely features in New Zealand labour historiography. The question arises then: how did Tillett, at the time a leading and well-known trade unionist, come to spend his time recuperating with Atkinson? The reason is that Tillett met Atkinson in the early 1890s, in Manchester, where Atkinson was for a short time foundation secretary of the Manchester and Salford Labour Church. For a year Atkinson worked intimately with the Church’s founder John Trevor, a former Unitarian Minister who left his denomination to establish his own Church for working people, convinced that God was working through the labour movement. A product of the mid-Victorian ‘crisis of faith’, Trevor’s prophets were not Jesus and the disciples, but Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson.4 Atkinson worked closely with Trevor and experienced the colour and symbolism of protest and demonstration and the ritual and rhetoric of Labour Church services. He met, listened to 1 Harry Atkinson to Bert Roth, 16 February 1953 in H. Roth Biographical Notes, MS Micro 0714, Reel 2, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington (ATL) [Henceforth Roth Bio Notes]. 2 Tillett’s doctor, G.E. Deamer, quoted in Jonathan Schneer, Ben Tillett: Portrait of a Labour Leader, London: Croom Helm, 1982, p.115. 3 Ben Tillett, Memories and Reflection, London: John Long Limited, 1931. 4 Mark Bevir, 'The Labour Church Movement, 1891-1902', The Journal of British Studies 38, 2 (April 1999), pp.217-245. 1 and worked with an array of socialist agitators and activists, including Robert Blatchford, Ben Tillett, Tom Mann, Edward Carpenter and Keir Hardie, and became familiar with a wide spectrum of socialist forms, ideas and ideologies. ! Atkinson returned to New Zealand in late 1893 and three years later founded the Socialist Church in Christchurch. Its creed was ‘promoting a fellowship amongst those working for the organisation of Society on a basis of Brotherhood and Equality’.5 The Socialist Church was not a Church in the traditional sense of the word. Instead it was a site for the debate, discussion and dissemination of radical and socialist literature, and a platform for political agitation and social reform.
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