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 subculture
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.
