THE COLONIAL TREASURER AND HIS CENSORS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 15, 6 May 1871, Page 15

THE COLONIAL TREASURER AND HIS CENSORS.

[West Coast Times.] .* "We agam warn the Emperor df Russia.'' In such solemn words was a small, secluded, country paper in the habit of seriously enjoining the Czar of All the Russias to shape his conduct I more in consonance with the opinions expressed through the medium of its minute columns. History has not recorded how the Emperor of Russia was in the habit of sustaining the solemnity of tbhr warning, or whether he recognised its sublimity or its ridicule, but it is. reasonable to presume that, like his predecessors, Lochiel and Macbeth, when similarly solemnly warned, ; he took his spiriting " gently." The cases are .not exactly parallel, but there is some similarity in the sublimity of the warnings given to the present Colonial Ministry by a certain section of the country Press, and in the value which is probably set .upon, the solemnity of the tone in which they are administered. Often they are ridiculously sublime, and as often sublimely ridiculous. Examples do not readily occur to us at the present moment for complete quotation, verhatim et literatim, but readers of the journals are, no doubt, acquainted with many instances in which there are prophecies uttered as to the fate of the Ministry, as the deserved fate of any Ministry which includes in its composition the presence of one man—the Hon. Julius Vogel. In fact, the capacity of the writers for caricature, and their acquaintance with derogatory expletives, have been utilised to their utmost, and an outside reader would be justified in coming to the conclusion that, instead of being in any degree an energetic politician and useful public servant, the Hon. Julius Vogel is some charlatan who has been pitchforked into place, and whose fate is sealed as sure as Caesar's was on the advent of the Ides of March. Locally, for example, we are told, either in morning or evening, that the moment is imminent when "the great Vogel"—this being meant for sarcasm—" wilj be forced to retire into the cool shades of Opposition," with the comment that " the sooner this happens the better for all classes of the community," or we are told that should the Pacific Mail Contract " explode," and "hoist its engineer into a cold political officeless vacuum, few would regret its failure, and none would sorrow for a fate , so well deserved." These are some of the mildest wishes expressed as to the political future of the Colonial Treasurer, and, as mere expressions of political opinion, they are, of course, permissible, however unjustified they may be by the absolute facts. Not so, the constant sneer at the man himself as an adventurer unworthy of confidence, and aiming only at his own aggrandisement or the abuse of office, regardless of political honesty or the practical progress of the Colony. The spirit which inspires these insinuations as to the original status of a fellowcolonist, or as to the mainsprings of his actions—-the envy and evil-speaking of which, because of his success, he is made the subject—are unworthy of those who are only colonists themselves, and who, as colonists, are possessed of capital only to the extent to which they put to good use the abilities, manual or mental, with which nature has endowed them. And itrequires no very intimate acquaintance either with the man, or with measures of which he has been and is the advocate, to enable one to know that the reflections are as unjustifiable as they are inconsiderately made. Anyone who has even outwardly watched the proceedings of politicians since active political life was awakened in the colony, and who has had opportunities of observing the career of the Colonial Treasurer, must confess that, amid evil and good report—the evil unfortunately predominating—the Treasurer has been an example unto other men by his personal activity in the discharge of representative and administrative duties, and that he has elevated himself to his present position by mere force of character—by such force of character as should be the object of admiration and imitation, rather than of unmeaning and unmitigated detraction. Without any ambition of being apologists of the Ministry, or any endeavour to ignore what, in connection with the capitation scheme, may have been a mistaken

policy on their part, so far as concerns the County of Westland, it would be negligence not to notice the unfair spirit in which, as one of its members, Mr Vogei has almost invariably been referred to by those who ciaiin t 6 be of the same profession as! himself; while they are unable to claim the success which he has bad, or the merits by which it. has been achieved. It was the recommendation of a conductor of one of the principal journals of this colony, when he was introduced, or imported, from one of the adjacent colonies, that he was " uncompromising assailant of Governments/* and there is too much reason to believe that he is not the only one connected with the Press in the colony who finds it an easy task to gain a bubble reputation by attacking those whose position precludes them from opportunities of open reply. At present these " uncompromising assailants" seem to abound in New Zealand, finding, as they no doubt do, that the task is a delightful one by the very ease of its accomplishment ; but it would exhibit a more generous spirit, and a greater fitness for the office which they occupy, if writers for the Press would confine themselves to a discussion of the principles and practices of the present Ministry, than indulge in miserable sneers at individual members whose position, in a free country such as this can scarcely be attained otherwise than by the possession of ability and its energetic application. And it would exhibit an almost equally ungenerous spiait on the part of those who have had opportunities of.acquainting themselves, not with the Minister, but with the man, if they did not protest against what we mav venture to call the vulgar abuse of Mr Vogel, and claim for him the colonist's privilege of being judged by his personal merits, and not by the tests of Mr Jerningham Wakefield and journalists who join with him in claiming political position as a hereditary privilege. So judged the present Colonial Treasurer cannot fail to be recognised as a fair example of the excellence of our fortunately democratic institutions, and of the spirit of enterprise and energy which, as colonists, it should be our pride to cultivate.