THE AGENT-GENERALSHIP.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 133, 23 September 1876, Page 2

THE AGENT-GENERALSHIP.

The resignation of Sir Julius Vogel appears to have come upon the Colony like a thunder-clap, and those who have looked up to him as the man who was to steer the State barque through the sea of financial difficulty can scarcely realise the fact that he, of all others the chief, should desert the helm. We have carefully read over his speech to the House, and cannot but remark the strong feeling of selfishness which pervades the whole. The duty he owes to himself and his family is alike the burden and refrain of his song. The pleasure he would experience at all times «to advance the interests of New Zealand sounds all very well as one of those idle compliments with which public speakers occasionally adorn their orations, but his action proves those expressions to be nothing more ; as valueless as the expended breath with which they were uttered. Sir Julius appears '■ o have learnt how to improve '"' each shining hour," and has sufficiently worldly wisdom to know how to float upon that " tide in the affairs of man which taken at the flood leads on to fortune." He breathes no lofty aspirations, no patriotic visions of his adopted country's greatness lures him on to hope for future glory. He simply resigns the honor of all his political power because " sufficient inducement offers." His trip to Europe at the Colony's expense, during which he squandered the hard-earned money of the taxpayers with right royal extravagance, he apparently used to his own personal advancement, and having had sufficient time to perfect his arrangements, he coolly kicks away the ladder to his preferment. He has certainly achieved great things for a man of "obscure birth and iron fortune ;" he has plunged the Colony into a sea of debt, he has won for himself a title—there his ambition stops, and the future petite noblesse will devote the remainder of his life to the sordid acquisition of wealth. We know not how many such statesmen of the Vogel patten may exist among the politicians of New Zealand, but if the future of the Colony is to be moulded by such hands, our children will have to mourn the nonlvalisation of these hopes of National greatness for which we have saddled them with an enormous National debt. Having taken command he should be the last to leave the ship in the hour of clanger ; on the contrary he should lash himself to the wheel, and stand firmly by his craft as long as there was a plank on which to rest his foot. The duty one owes to Self and Co. is but a poor excus3 for such desertion. The people of New Zealand are not more ungrateful than their ancestors or their neighbours, and the statesmen who have served Great Britain and her dependencies have seldom gone unrequited. As it is we can only regret that the hand which should have led us on to victory, has in the hour of trial faltered.— Marlborough Express.