MR VOGEL'S PLEASURE TRIP.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 914, 11 January 1871, Page 2

MR VOGEL'S PLEASURE TRIP.

[evening fost.] " It is the last ounce that breaks the camel's back" says the proverb, and our beneficent rulers are certainly piling a load on the already over-burdened Colony of New Zealand so fast that the back-break-ing culmination must be speedily reached. We were accustomed to hear the complaints of the extravagance of the late Ministry; Messrs Fox, Vogel and Co., while in opposition, assured the country that Mr Stafford was driving it to ruin headlong, and that nothing but their advent to power could save it. The change took place, but, unfortunately, it did not prove one for the better. If Mr Stafford was extravagant, Mr Fox is ten times more so; if Stafford scourged ua with whips, Vogel has used scorpions; the money spent by the Stafford Ministry was disbursed in carrying out schemes of policy ; that spent by their successors is principally used in rewarding their friends and securing themselves in their positions. The people of New Zealand have long been under the impression that their system of Government was a ruinously expensive one—in fact, that in regard to it the ne plus ultra of extravagance had been reached, but they were mistaken.; means have been found to render it more expensive still, as the appointment of Commissioners to England, assented to in two special cases with great reluctance by the Assembly, is, it would appear, about to be made a portion of the machinery for governing the country. Our las.fc Commisioners, the futility of whose mis* sion was insisted on by many people both in and out of Parliament, have returned, or at least one of them has done so. They have been absent a year, and we may fairly assume that in one way or another they have cost the Colony between ,£IO,OOO and .£12,000. The ostensible objects for which they went to Europe were to procure a regiment of Imperial troops, and to arrange for raising a force for the service of the Colony, in England. There were other matters which it was thought they might see to incidentally, such as immigration, feeling the pulse of the Imperial Government about a loan, &c, but securing the troops was the primary object. Well, they have returned, and what have they done ? They have procured no soldiers, they have made no arrangements either about raising a Colonial army or sending out an army of immigrants. Dr Featherson even failed in getting over the difficulty about the Wellington patent slip. They have sent out one or two interesting letters, written by their secretary, on the capabilities of flax, and the properties of narrow guage railways; they have enjoyed a pleasant trip on the Continent, and arranged for sending out a few families of Swedes (whom, it will puzzle them to employ when they arrive), and this is about all they have done, with the exception of obtaining the Imperial guarantee to the million loan. This might have been deemed sufficient to establish the success of their mission had not Mr Vogel demonstrated how easy it is to raise ten millions without any guarantee. But* successful or otherwise, they have returned, and we might reasonably have hoped that we were done with Commissioners for a long time at least; but no ! Scarcely has Dr Featherston set his foot on the wharf, when Mr Vogel gets himself appointed something or other, and starts off on a fresh mission. What its object is, does not very clearly appear; at first, it was imagined that he was to be Agent*General for the Colony at home, but his own announcement that he would be back in a few months, and that one of his organs—the Lyttelton Times—=that he would be back before the assembling of Parliament, would seem to preclude this idea. If he is about attempting to float his 10an,..,.., .he is not only doing so before the Colony has sanctioned his proceedings, but in the face of certain failure. And .whatever business he may contemplate doing in England, why could it not have been transacted by Messrs Featherston and Bell, who were already on the spot ? Surely he does not wish to make us believe that, he can accomplish it better than they would have done ? There seems then to be no reason for this fresh escapade of Mr Vogel's except that he wishes a trip to England at the expense of the Colony. Were wo parting with him for ever, the money he would cost in transit would be well bestowed in getting rid of him, but unfortunately he contemplates a return. It is for the electors

of the Colony to consider whether this state of things is to continue—whether we are to have in perpetuity envoys making the tour of the world, one set returning by Suez, while another is crossing the Pacific to America, It is monstrous that while we are groaning under a load of taxation, the Government pleading want of funds as an excuse for neglecting public works of vital importance, our harbors defenceless, our rivers nnbr'idged, and large tracts of country useless for want of roads, we should yet allow such men as Mr Vogel .£2,500 a year, a highly paid secretary, and carte blanche as to expenses, merely that for his own pleasure he may make the tour af half the world, and cut a dash in Europe, not to mention the irremediable mischief he may do if allowed latitude enough. Surely the commission farce is played out.