AFTER 60 YEARS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1930, Page 2

AFTER 60 YEARS

SIR JULIUS VOGEL’S BUDGET.

In the course of the next few weeks

Parliament will be called upon to. make important decisions regarding the goneial policy of the Dominion. In view of recent disclosures by the Prime Minister and Minister oi Fin-

ance, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, it may be confidently predicted that. this year’s Budget will' contain some very important proposals. 1 It' is an interesting coincidence of fate that it' 'is sixty years since Sir Julius Vogel delivered his epoch-marking Budget in the House of Representatives. ' It was ou June 28,. 1870, that Sir Julius (then Mr Vogel) as Colonial r i reasprer in the third Fox Ministry delivered the financial statement outlining

his famous public works policy, winch

was so. sensational that it “thqrough- - ]y shook the nerve , of honourable members.” , With the passing of the years Sir Julius Vogel has been relegucod to the distant past and the young New Zea-

lander of to-day knows nothing of the far-sighted Jew who became. Premier /■ of New Zealand and who bv Ms ,tnergetic policy awoke the colony from the lethargy into which it had fallen during the Maori Wars, indeed in 1870 the wars had not as then entirely ceased, hut it was felt that something should he done to set on foot a forward move in the colonisation and settlement. The country, however, was not prepared for proposals for such . far-reachipg consequence as were embodied in the “public works policy of 1870,” Mr Vogel proposed that £400,000 should be spent upon roads in the North Island, and that a like sum should be .given to the .South Island to be spent exclusively on railways and to he divided among the pro-' 3 vinces in proportion to .their contributions to consolidated revenue. He proposed that in. the course of the ensuing ten years a system d: .: always should be constructed in..the North Island from Auckland to Wanganui and Wellington via Taupo, with connections to Napier and New Plymouth.

In the South Island it was proposed to construct lines, from Nelson to Greymouth, Hokitika and Westport, and a line from Picton to the far south. It was further proposed to authorise advances to the provinces for water supplies on goldfields to the extent of £200,000, whilst £60,000 was to 'be allocated for telegraphic extension and £1,500,000 for inupigration. The complete policy provided for the expenditure of £10,000,000 over a period of ten years, fbujt it was computed that a great part of that sum would be defrayed out of land sales or would ,be represented by guarantees of interest, The amount to be borrowed in the ten years was set down at’. £6,000,000, inclusive of any loan obtained from the Imperial Government, It ,wj»s proposed that as the State would by the opening of a road through tjie North Island improve the value of the land that it should secure a portion of the estate and so share in the profit of the improvement and thftt such lands or its proceeds should bo devoted to railways and immigration. For the purchase : of these lands it was proposed that the sum. of £200,000 should be available. , The proposals of the Government staggered the House and after a lengthy debate Mr Vogel submitted a modified scheme under which the amount to be borrowed was reduced to £4,OOO.OOO; One million was to be applied to miscellaneous purposes, a like sum to immigration and two millions to railways. the proposed schedule of railways was struck out and a provision inserted that no railway line should be constructed without having first been approved by Parliament.

The Budget as amended was agreed to unanimously on JJulv 20. Mr Vogel was not long in putting liis policy into operation. One writer has said: “When nine months after the enunciation of the policy, railway construction, the (building of . schools, police stations, courthouses, immigra- ’ tions cottages, hospitals and, other public buildings commenced, the quarter of a million' people who inhabited these islands looked on with wondering eyes because it was such a change from the makeshift way of doing things to which they had been accustomed. Many of them predicted that the pace was too swift and that financial ruin would be the result, but others realised that the languishing colony had got the inspiration and uplift tor which it had been hungering for many years. Schoolmasters commenced to ‘ get decent salaries, policemen in the country districts got respectable homes to live in and left their raupo whares, and resident magistrates were appointed to dispense justice in properly constructed courthouses. When 30,000 immigrants arrived in one vea.r and 20,000 in another many of the old settlers gasped, (but when the whisble of the railway engine commenced to be heai throughout the land and settlement proceeded apace a work was accomplished in three or four years which under the old order of things would not have taken place for as many decades.” In the short space of six y years the struggling colony has grown into a vigorous young nation. ie work of Sir Julius Vogel has not been in vain. Let it be said in conclusion that the Dominion has much to thank its Jewish statesman for quite apart j ro m the public works policy of 18/0.