BANQUET TO SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

Evening Star, Issue 4050, 18 February 1876, Page 2

BANQUET TO SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

> [Bl TEtEOUAPH.] . , Wellington, February 18. The Yogd Banquet la«»t night was largely attended. About. 350 sat at the table, and a groat many could not obtain seats; ! The.gallery was crowded with ladies. • All the principal public men were present. Members of the Fire Brighde attended in a dimly,’ in uniform’ The M yor occupied the chair. • ' Sir Jttiius Voxel's entry int the. room, wearing his collar and star, was revived with l>md applanae. The ity members; and men bets bf the Mirifefry. sat on either hand of Sir Julius Vogel itJpon the Chairman rising to propose ‘ Out* Q-uesi tije cheers aud applause were deafening. Throughout toe remarks' of the Cliaitmaa, refaring to the public services of Sir Julius Vogel, there, was intense applause.

Sir Julius Vogel, who wu received with' ere. longed applause, in replying to the toast ofhis health, returned thanks for the honor clone, him since his return to the Colony. He theii said he did not propose to enter into; any explanation, of any of the'details in connection with bis trip Home The leading matters with trbioh he had to Seal were immigration, the Joan negotiation, and the other acts which were already well known. What* .ever .opinion might haye been repressed here about thp loan, it was a pleasure.to him.,to know thht at Home the operation was looked upon as an extra, ordinary success. 1 K 'Would hot be but oi place to moke reference to the new sub-marine cable Sj at a few hours communication with the pother Colonies would be complete He had authority, under the Governor's wamdktt.to have made the colony responsible for twenty thouifo ofar five 1<5,000 per year for tea yearns m*aU MO,OOO. Another important matter to ded with was arragement with the Bank of Englandj-bv which the Colony-had its stock inscribed and payable to bearer. Without entering, to toxjxplana. thhia, he mlghij say thav .the to the character of our securities. He'refrrfettedhia ihhess prevented him being present la. ' P?P™ a session, and rendering him unable to hdn work KSSI place. No feature of the session be more rovroi-tiur j«»*fldenoe felt in his ability to prevent Nativedisagreement, to carry out the nolira,. would , have been impossible.• No‘hue felt "that 1 more than' Mr Wox, a&d thp member of hiß C&binet. knew to <any out the policy in hand it wasessentdal there should be a respite from Native difficulties. Ministers should be at liberty to devote their energies to .The confidence «£ Donald M*Loan had been times perhaps. he had givenway to, exertional expendil ,wit ? A 6^" 111 but nothin* tould be more ungrateful than to now raise these questions, after «5l tost the Colony • owedtotoe tact, Prudence, and discretion' which secured it ftfomthe difficulties which had:afflicted it tnthe wwt. Ai,dnpw*all we Wok,, down the ladder, by * ve ** 3en , p Touching the queation of Abolition, he said when the Public" Works policy was restituted, that if the policy conflicted with the Provhmes, the latter must yield. The people must see that whenever the Government came to a de. ttramtlon fttat such ooxffilcts had arisen, they Ired to deal with the esae. :In 1871 and 1873 the General voyerunent iiaa to every Province hut two, and they wanted authority to borrow. It was impossible such a state of thinaa could go on. As the leader of the Governments the session before last, he had every ment not to . ,fcal with the matter. The House supported the Government till the session was neuly.at an endt.and Ministers oould have comfortably concluded the business without de* lay, •, but their i sense of public duty forbade tteir postponing the on nation for one day. The struggle was inevitable, and the longer the delay the more would the country suffer. They were noV anxious to do' niore than whs necessary at the time, and therefore purposed to only with the North Island. That scheme the advantage at the time because Provincial bourn. ’ danes in the North Island had no particular waning, and in many respects these boundaries wttw doal with all the Provinces, and plans had to be modified to preserve more distinctly than otherwise Sr*". ' 'necessarily be Provincial districts. Provincial Governments themselves made >t nance saxy to deal.with all the) Provinces. They were all .anzuras ty,W to carrying out their Pro. yindal wofks, yet the General Government had in reality.done IfrovinoiaVworks for the last five years, andifthey looked totind the Colony they would see the General. Government hod dohe tnorC in Bvo years thon the Provinces could do in thixty-flve. The railways themselves were an example of this.' Tabs the case of the Clutha Bailway alone. 'The Pro. vmce ef Otago for yfears vainly attempted to carer oht that railway, and wfere w&uhg to payfi per ofent upon 1i400,000 for it; whereas the General Qovernl ment had done it at a oost estimated at 6 pfer cent, on L 360.000, showing, iq; that railway alone, a dif. ference of LIB,OOO a-year. All' sides had come to toe opinion more and more .that the credit of the Colony would not stand the fetrain put upon it by the Provinces. It was impossible to pursue the system of seeing which would spend the most money^the General Government had been going on in Otago plainly evinced what we were opmingn/to by toe attempts to reserve enormous, blocks of land, in anti, oipation of further changes. It was. better_to have these changes, to‘show that such actioniras unnecessary, than to allow each a «ense onto* security to pontinue. He thought no, Government could fail to see that the financial question alone made abolition necessary. He. did not go with .those'who idx yearn desired the destruction of the Provinces, nor did fae recall past opinions the question. ■ There were disadvantages > inseparable from abolition. He .did ppt oonsider an unmixed good would' arise ! n6tm abolition. On the other * hand, the Cdloay had tor some time been doing ,preytocial,wpikv,.The L most Jgravinnialwork .done for yean had been indirectly General Government work. Nearlywventolhg ot.toy’eonaeqaenoe that had baen done -had been done by the General Go. vernment or the. General Assembly; still, while he believed out districts would largely benefit bythe' Clear,'however, that raihrays had made Previn*

been made. He, however, regretted the subsequent J action of the Opposition, which was calculated to defeat its own ends. The cry of separation was unwise. The thing was impossible and impracticable. As every one must be aware, when separation might have been obtained, he was not opposed to it. He also said at that time that the North Island should have had a different form of Government. He had maintained that the Imperial Government should and would be responsible for expenditure upon Native difficulties. The Colony had had imposed upon it five millions of debt through that difficulty. Separation Would not now hfiprove their position or claims upon the Imperial Government. _ He held strongly that sooner or later the Imperial Parliament would have to consider what whs dne to the Colony on account of the expenditure on Native difficulties. When he went Home he urged-the claim Of the Colony on that account to have the four million loan guaranteed, and indeed f ,vc some days he had hopes that ha would getjhis idea carried out, but he found out that he could not do it. He was confident, however, that sooner or later the Colony would have its claims to investigation reCQgnised. It was altogether too late to raise ; the question of Separation now. We had entered into a partnership—the Middle Island had agreed to this partnership, and looked forward to be relieved in the end by the North Island, which benefittod by the partnership. In Otago)the cry now raised for Separation was short-sighted indeed. Otago’s position relatively to the Colony with which it is now brought into through communication is much more .important to it than any local interests could be. If Ota go was a small Colony itself, Otago had now obtained such a position that anything which affected the Colony was of more importance to it than the narrow local interest. The cry about upsetting the Compact of 1856 was merely another attempt to crea'.e dissension, ' The Middle Island had agreed with the Colony to become liable for the cost of making roads at very large expenditure through their lands, and at the expense of the Colony. It agreed to purchase land at an expenditn e of seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds. If it was even desirable to increase that amount no objection would be raised. In reality the Compact of 1856 had b en superseded to that extent that tlje Middle Island says, “ We are now willing to see the Colony acquire for the North Island the heat estate procurable.” He would again pay that the change was not an nnmixed good. Although the General Government had been accustomed to do Provincial work, yet abolition me. Nt a great wrench to their institutions. . He could not forget, however, that the floating debts of tbe Provinces were very heavy, and they would largely affect the finances of the Colony. Ho regretted party feeling survived the determination to abol sh the There never was a time which more required the able men of all sides to aid in determining . the various points which would arise in providing a substitute for Provincial Government. The work could not be done at once. It must proceed tentatively. He, for one, did not disguise the many difficulties that might arise they had thoroughly provided a substitute for all the machinery which Provincial Government supplied. The principal wants they would no doubt be able to deal with, but it was impossible to provide a large system without contingencies arising. That had not been foreseen. Another important question' was the land administration. The General Government were not at all anmindfal of the great responsibilities thrown upon them in dealing with the administration of land, which was a question quite apart from, and of. for more importance. +.b<w the dissension about land revenue. He hoped moderate men would yet see their way to forego personal feelings and aid in the work. For his part, he should endeavor to do all he could to heal those differences, that proceeded more from personal dissension than differences of opinion. An important movement of the age was the establishment of municipal governments, which tended to make the cities of New Zealand like the old free towns of Europe. Their positions, as to supply of ' gas, -water, drainage, public libraries, Sco., were ve-y proper and desirable; but he did not consider that harbors should be left to municipalities to deal with. He was rather of opinion that Wellington harbor should We looked upon as a harbor belong, big to the whole Island. It was not surpassed by any harbor in the Colony, and only equalled by the harbor ofWaitemata. In respect to the anticipation of difficulties, there might be a penod < of dearession, and persons who might have yielded to inducements in over-trading might gaccnmb.' Their energies had been expended worthily in developing the country, and he had no doubt it could only suffer temporarily. The great works that had been established must enable the Colony to progress. He was gkd to find himself so welcomed by the working classes, and he looked upon himself as one of the working classes : he owed ma success in life to his own labor and hard work-j Ho had to thank his own industry for the position he now occupied. Tbe laboring classes enjoyed great advantages here, and except in the case of advanced mechanics in -some of the large towns in the whole world, the position of the labeling classes appeared to compute more favorably with their position elsewhere. They were able to comzoand polity of rood, to obtain laud for homesteads, the comforts of life, and good education for their children, with openings left to them to attain the highest position m the Colony. (Sir Julius resumed his seat amidst immense and prolonged applause)