Remembering candidate AA Fantham
The Egmont Electorate came into being in 1871, formed south of Mount Egmont/Taranaki, and remained until 1978. William Gisborne held the seat for a year and then it was won by Major Harry Atkinson who held it through six elections until he resigned in 1891.
Though Atkinson held the seat with a comfortable majority many of his constituents would have liked him to be more often in his electorate listening to their concerns.
But he was one of a small group of politicians who lived in Wellington and were part of an ever changing ministry. Atkinson was premier four times and colonial treasurer for ten years during his parliamentary life.
At the 1884 parliamentary election he was challenged by a new comer to Hawera, a businessman/farmer Arthur Albert Fantham who said the major needed to have an opponent. He was nominated by prominent farmer and public spirited citizen James Livingston.
Christchurch raised Fantham had recently arrived in Hawera from developing a farm property (Gwynnelands) near Cambridge, bringing with him his wife Mary, his family of nine children, much of his herd of Shorthorn stud cattle and a fine reputation for establishing farmer organisations in the Waikato.
In 1884 the requirements for voters taking part in general elections were that they must be over 21 years of age, have been in New Zealand for two years and in the district for six months. Only men voted and it would be another 10 years before women were entitled to vote.
The election was to be held on July 23, 1884 and both contestants held meetings in Hawera, Patea, Opunake, Stratford and Normanby that were well attended by settlers who came to meet the candidates and to hear their points of view and promises.
Fantham, being a newcomer to the district, was well received and made a good impression on his electors with his policies on cheap loans for farm development, policies that later governments took up.
Major Atkinson stressed farm development too and he was quizzed about getting the railway connection from Wanganui to New Plymouth completed and a south to north railway through the middle of North Island.
The Major’s reputation for being a colonial treasurer who was not expansionist like predecessor Julius Vogel marked him as being careful with money raised through taxation and limited borrowings.
Many of the electors saw the need to have a change of representative but did not want to lose a treasurer who was getting the country through the difficult times the country was in.
The conduct of the campaigns were good hearted and enlivened by amusing letters to the newspapers.
The afternoon following the poll the Hawera and Normanby Star, published the results of the Atkinson/Fantham contest. The 17 booths listed, from Patea to Omata, showed that with small variations Atkinson outpolled Fantham two to one, 874 to 403.
On the national scene Harry Atkinson’s party was returned to power for as long as other groupings of members of Parliament allowed.
A A Fantham did not make another attempt at gaining a seat in parliament, he busied himself with the newly established Egmont Agricultural and Pastoral Society, the Egmont Farmers’ Union, the Egmont Racing Club and other farming endeavours.
Atkinson and Fantham struck up a friendship that continued until Harry Atkinson’s death in 1892.
In 1908 a statue in Italian marble of Arthur Albert Fantham was erected by his friends in Hawera’s King Edward Park. It was a tribute to an energetic farmer/businessman who had served his community well. Puke Ariki cares for more than 110,000 images in the Swainson/ Woods Collection that were generated by the New Plymouth based businesses, Swainson’s Studios and Bernard Woods Studio, between 1923 and 1997.
Many of the photographs are still unidentified.
Check our efforts out online at http://vernon.npdc.govt.nz/ simpleSearch.jsp
If you can help identify this week’s photo, please phone the Taranaki Research Centre, 06 759 6060, or email the team at images@npdc.govt.nz