Sir Julius Vogel.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 69, 20 August 1885, Page 4

Sir Julius Yogel.

A cortributor of the Sydney Mail of a recent > : ato writes as lollows : — The land of the Maoris is aland by itself, not' l.rothor, not even first cousin, belong-a Australia, as different at all points as the straiglit-nosod, lithelimbed Roman from the Dutchman, bulbous as his pipe. Hills, lakes, seas, ■ plains, birds, beasts (there arc no beasts) totally different, and, as a matter ot course, men growing difterem, too. The old men of the land, the ' Maoris, were different as their hills, and . the new men are becoming singularly like them. I will quote the instances m proof. Som^ 25 years ago a rather prominent English statesman was travelling through thu thick Maori country, and 10 years later he went again the same track.' On the second visit he missed a familar face and tongue, an old man who had made days short and nights long with philosophical discourse. He asked the young chief, " Where is? he, Heke, the old man, the great talker?" And the chief replied, "He is dead." "-Did he become sick ?'' "No ; but he became troublesome. He gave us so much good advice that we had to put him;tO death easily." He did not describe the process ; i but it could hardly have been so painless and pleasant as that proposed for a certain white old man who alsq has given his fellows m New Zealand much good advice, and seems to have grown troublesome thereby. It is Sir Julius Yogel. .^Everybody who knows New Zealand knows how m the year '72, when the country was on the verge of ruin, squatters tumbling down like ninepins, farmers so low they could tumble no further, storekeepers with Insolvency Court ever before them, and publicans, like crows m the last days of a drought, unable to pick any more meat from bleaching bones, Julius Yogel stepped into the breach, and bai"red.the entry of. absolute ruin. His advice then was very simple and very good — " You have no money, and j r ou want money ; i go and borrow.'' It w^-as a revelation. They went borrowing ; they found plenty willing to lend. The strength of the new gold passed into their hoing like new life blood into shrivelled veins ; the squatter grew rich, the farmer prosperous, the storekeeper puffed, ahd tiie publican bloated, and Julius Yogel entered the order of knighthood. This prosperity lasted long ; but m due course came that time whereof the ballad-mon-ger sine's : — \ But when the moneys gone and spent Anil there's no more to be borrowed, nor yet to be lent, The landlord enters with a frown. Saying, "Get up Jack, let John sit down ; For I know you're outward bound." Sir Julius was outward bound then, away to the fat pastures of Israel m European lands. The parable of Jeshnrnn was repeated with rospoctj to Sir Julius and the land he had served so well. They all waxed fat, they all picked and, having found against them the; sharp pricks of adversity, m some queer fashion they were all together again. But, alas ! for the disappointment the old talisman would not work. Those who expected some magical relief, some incomprehensible influx of prosperity with the advent of Sir Julius, were disappointed. The barns and the stores remained full of wheat, and the bankg were full of cash. Sir Julius wrestled with the Government, and, as he himself said, with unbelief enough to kill a whole college qf prophets ; but the clouds will not lif t, and the people grew tired. And what is the end of it ? Well, this : Sir Julius claims a sum of i'6ooo for services rendered while Agent- General, and it is proposed to grant it to him on conditions that he leaves the colony. A merciful sort of political death, surely !