BANQUET TO SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2721, 29 December 1882, Page 3

BANQUET TO SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

[press association telegram.] WELLINGTON, December 28. Sir Julius Vogel was entertained at luncheon to-day. About 250 persons, including a fair sprinkling of ladies, sat down. The chair was occupied by the Mayor, having on his right Sir Julius Vogel, and on his left His Excellency the Administrator of the Government, Sir James Prendergast. He was also supported by the Colonial Treasurer, tbe Hon. Major Atkinson, Hon. W. Rolleston, and the Speaker of the Legislative Council, Sir William Fitzherbert. Among those present were also Messrs W. H. Levin, C. J. Johnston, W. Hutcheson, W. Beetham, M.H.R.’s, the Hons. P. A. Buckley, Dr. Grace, and J. Martin, M.L.C.’s. The remainder of the company comprised many of the prominent citizens of Wellington. The toast of “ His Excellency the Acting-Governor ” was drunk amidst a display of enthusiasm. In replying. Sir James Pendergast said he was aware the manifestation of good will was to be attributed to the office which he filled for a short time, and not personal merit of his own. [Loud cries of “ No.”] He thanked those present for their kindness, and expressed his gratitude at being able to be present on that occasion. He mentioned that when he was an advocate in the Supreme Court of New Zealand Sir Julius Vogel occupied the losition of Prime Minister of the Colony. Renewed cheers.] He believed the people of New Zealand had been desirous whenever occasion had presented itself of testifying their appreciation of services rendered on their behalf by Sir Julius Vogel. [Loud cheers.] Sir William Fitzherbert, amidst enthusiastic cheers, next rose to propose the health of “Our Guest.” After referring to the honor conferred upon him on being asked to propose such a toast, he said his task was a pleasant as well as an easy one. The presence of so numerous an assemblage at such a short notice and so inconvenient an hour, sufficiently testified to the honor in which Sir Julius was held.

[Cheers.] It was not his intention to make a long tedious speech. He had always admired the practical wisdom of those lawyers in Court who, after looking at twelve intelligent jurymen, recognising that they had the case in their pocket, sat down after saying a very few words. Their guest was for many years a political opponent of him who they had called upon to propose his health, but he would scorn to belong to any party whose views would debar him from free acknowledgment of successes achieved by a rival. [Cheers.] When Sir Julius arrived in this colony about twenty years ago, more or less, he was friendless, and by his own indomitable energy won his way into Parliament, where he gave expression to opinions that made the hair stand on the heads of those who heard them. He had the courage of his opinions, and forced his way without having anybody but himself to thank for the position he had now attained. [Cheers.] He, Sir William, had never known a man laboring under such terrible physical disadvantages and suffering, who had done his duty as a public man so well, without shrinking therefrom. If anything were needed to demonstrate the master mind of their guest, it was supplied in the fact that every bit of the administration in New? Zealand that had occurred under whatever leadership had borne his impress. [Cheers.] Sir Julius Yogel, on rising to acknowledge the toast, was received with prolonged enthusiastic cheers. He spoke for exactly half an hour. He said if those present would place themselves in his position they would recognise that he was not able to say, as Sir William Fitzherbert had done, that his task was an easy one, for he thought they must allow that public speaking was somewhat difficult when the feelings that one spoke under, so to say, gushed up faster and in greater volume than one was able to find utterance for. To come back here after his long absence, to have to make so hurried a visit at so short a notice, to be received so kindly by such a gathering as the present, and to hear the kind remarks made by Sir Wm, Pitzherbert, all this overpowered his feelings, and he could only say that it was a source of extreme regret to him that ho was only able to make so short a stay in Wellington. [Cheers.] Had it not been for a sudden illness with which he was stricken down in Melbourne, he would have made a much longer stay. [Renewed cheers.] They might well believe that, as he had visited this colony, with ■‘which so much of his eax-ly life had been associated, arousing a recollection of all his former successes, trials, cares and anxieties of public life the old feeling would natunaturally recur to him again, like the warrior on the war path, a feeling that he should like once more to resume a position in public life in this colony. [Loud cheers.] He had not been many hours in New Zealand before he was offered, he was going to say two seats, but he ought to say a reasonable prospect of two seats, by gentlemen who wore willing to resign their positions in his favour. He had some thought before he left England of this contingency, and, recognising the weakness which sometimes led persons to wish for that which was not always wise for them, had taken care to guard against the fascination of renewing his acquaintance with public life in New Zealand by leaving at Homo some very substantial hostages, in the shape of his children. [Laughter.] Those familiar with public life could bear him out _ in saying that there was a special fascination about it, though as against that fascination there was an equal extent of private sacrifice. It was, however, very much to the credit of public men in New Zealand that public life had never been, and he thought never would bo in this colony, the road to private advancement, beyond that which came from regard such as that which he was receiving to-day and the knowledge of the appreciation entertained by one’s fellow r colonists. [Cheers.] Though there were frequently heated debates, during which were used words which were not perhaps uttered al together with consideration, it had rarely been the case,if ever, that impure motives had been attributed to public men, and he thought it was almost an axiom that strength of foundation of government depended upon the estimation in which those who exercised the power of governing were hold. [Cheers.] It was said that duty brought its own reward. He did not mean that sort of duty one had to pay through customs, or duty which was imposed upon unfortunate owners of property. [Laughter.] But one had sometimes to wait a long time for the reward he alluded to, and Sir William had described to them how the highest positions in the land were open to those who had the courage to strive for them, and were open, moreover, to the humblest classes. They should not leave out of the governing power that most important arm of it, the civil service. hcjir.] Ho ielt thut lie would have spoken incompletely on the present occasion if he had to go away from Wellington without expressing the sense or gratitude which ho, in common with other public men of the colony,, owed to the devoted service of the civil servants of New Zealand. There were many positions in the Government service, such, for example, the charge of departments like those of railways, telegraphs, life insurance and the public trustee, in which, if they were private undertakings, those who were in charge of them would receive salaries four or five times greater than those received by the civil servants. It was evident, there-

fore, that the Government, as a rule, secured the services of its employes at very much less than the average cost paQ for able jnep in private undertakings. [Hear, hear.] It was notorious that in Victoria, on the celebrated “ Black Thursday,” there were removed from public service, without any ceremony whatever, many persons who now had reason to feel grateful for the events of that day, which enabled them to arrive at fortunes and position which many would doubtless have never otherwise have attained. It was a matter for great gratification that the public works of the colony were admitted to have been so successful. From the standpoint of a visitor, he would like to say that the work of the future was hy no means finished; that there was one subject which was as much a burning question _of the present as of the prist immigration. [Cheers.] The visitor was constantly reminded as he travelled through the colony of the want of population. In 1870 we aspired to convert 250,000 persons into 500,000. Wo ought to be more ambitious now, and seek to convert that 500,000 into a million. [Loud cheers.] He was pleased at the substantial progress made by Wellington during his absence, and especially that the Wollington-Manawatu railway had been commenced. [Loud cheers.] Both Lady Vogel, whoso absence on that occasion was keenly regretted by her, and bimself, would ever remember tbe kindness that they had invariably experienced at the hands of the people of Wellington, where so many important years of their lives had been spent, and whether in Wellington or away from it—whether, in fact, in New Zealand or away from it, his hopes and exertions, humble as they might be, would always be at command of colonists —[loud cheers] —and he was still young, although he did not look it, and he could indulge the hope that it might not be denied to him at some future time to come back to the colony and a long stay. [Renewed cheers.] He thanked them all most heartily for the kind and enthusiastic reception accorded to him, and asked them to excuse the imperfect nature of his utterances. [Loud and prolonged cheers.] The company then separated.