The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 224, 12 September 1876, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

One more star haa vanished from the constellation of New Zealand politicians. More brilliant, more erratic, more eccentric in his movements than any of his predecessors, Sir Julius Vogel has after a seven years [career finally disappeared. His setting has not been bright, picturesque, or in any way beautiful, for by his own voluntary act he had gathered around him a bank of clouds whicb materially dimmed his lustre as he sank below the horizon. It might have been otherwise. A little more patience, a little less greed, and he might have been transferred, or have transferred himself — for the active in preference to the passive mood is the correct one to use in all pertaining to his career — from the sphere he is leaving to that at which he aimed, with little if any of the obloquy which now attaches to his name. Had he waited quietly until the close of the present session before deserting his colleagues and the country whose interests he tells us he has so much at heart scarce a word would have been breathed against him, and Sir Julius Vogel the Agent- General would have been regarded in as honorable a light aa Sir Julias Vogel the Premier, and propounder of the Public Works Policy which, had it been administered with an amount of care equal to the boldness and spirit that marked its conception might have placed New Zealand among the foremost of England's colonies. But, notwithstanding his political suicide, there can be no doubt that the late Premier has left his mark on the history of New Zealand, and that witb all his faults he has placed her in a different position to that whicb she occupied prior to his taking office — whether the change is to be permanently beneficial or nofc is a problem yet to be solved, but still it has been brought about, and up to the present time has proved to be for the better. But the initiation of whafc is fairly recognized as the Vogel policy was marked by a grave error, which may have been the result of a lack of determination and moral courage, and judging by what has followed we are inclined to think that it was. Mr Vogel saw thafc by the simultaneous introduction of borrowed capital for public works, and of labor to carry them out, the colony might be raised out of the lamentable state into which from various causes it had fallen in 1870, but his proposals were brought down in as crude and undigested form as was hia A bolition " policy "—it seems ludicrous now to dignify it with such a name — which has not yet reached even its first stage of development. Had he, before laying before the country his public works and immigration scheme, have carefully thought it out, and after acquiring all available information, have come down to the House to borrow a certain sum of money for certain specific works, the Government asserting what those works should be, and undertaking fche responsibility of their selection, had he done this, bis elaim to be regarded as a farseeing statesman would have been far more firmly established than it now is. But he feared to do it. He judged, and judged rightly, that it would tend much more to his popularity — transient though it might be — to bring forward a proposal to borrow ten millions, with a view to throwing them on the floor of the House to be scrambled for. The times were bad, everything was in a depressed state, and the idea of introducing ten millions into a country that was languishing for want of money was certain to take, and to be acted upon, as each member would feel sure that out of so large a sum he would be safe to secure a portion for the district he represented. And so the loan was authorised. What followed we all know ; how thousands and thousands of pounds have been thrown away on needlessly expensive railways, and upon the purchase of costly plant for waterworks that will never be completed, or, if they are, will prove utterly useless. "Pressure was brought to bear;" " the House insisted upon it." Such are the excuses pleaded when the Government are taxed with extravagance, bufc to the Ministry, or rather to the then Mr Vogel, was the possibility of such resistless pressure being brought to bear due. Had he taken the precaution of erecting the barrier before letting loose the torrent, ifc might and probably would have proved a sufficient check ; to attempt it afterwards must of necessity be utterly useless. But even the attempt was not made, or, if made at all, very feebly so. The late Premier was by nature an extravagant, and, in money matters, a thoroughly careless man, and at the same time one of a sanguine and speculative disposition. He little recked of how the money was going, or if he ever did give the matter a thought, it probably was merely to the extent thafc things must right themselves eventually. Bufc things have nofc righted themselves, on the contrary the outlook is gloomy in the extreme, and so — little words are these " and so," but pregnant with meaning when taken in i connection with those thafc precede them, and we use them advisedly— Sir Julius Vogel is going home. A fresh volume of New Zealand's history was commenced when Mr Vogel proposed his public worke- and iramigrafciou

scheme amid the plaudits of tbe members of the House and the resolutions of approval passed by their constituents at public meetings. So far as the author of the scheme is concerned tbe volume is now closed, and, whatever may have been the opinions entertained of him during its perusal, the last page bas cast such a shadow over all that preceded it that ifc is wifch a sensation of thankfulness and relief that we arrive at the " Finis."