SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

Patea Mail, 5 July 1882, Page 3

SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

WHAT HE IS —WHAT HE HAS DONE. In the course of a week it is more than likely that Sir Julius Vogel will land once more upon the shores of New Zealand. It is now just about twenty years ago since he first came to this colony, and during his connection with it, of no settler can it be said so emphatically he has left his footprints upon the sands of time, his mark in the history of the country. Not many know the history of Sir Julius Vogel, although his name is familiar with everyone in the colony. In the years that have elapsed since he left for England as AgentGeneral for New Zealand many thousands of people have come to this country and to them Sir Jnlius Vogel is but a name, in their minds associated by some means with the public debt and the public works ; a man who was once poor and is now rich ; a man who by some flippant writers has been described as an adventurer. Sir Julius is no adventurer, nor has he ever been entitled to such a character. He is, indeed, less of an ad-* venturer than the many hundreds of settlers who have become enriched by the advanced value their lands obtained through the policy he initiated when Premier of this colony. Nevertheless, there are to be found men who arriving here with very limited capital, speculated in land by means of borrowed money, and made handsome fortunes in consequence of the public works policy, who with the arrogance begotten of wealth in, land will term' Sir Julius Vogel an adventurer ! Yet some of those men would have been bankrupt, stripped of their lands, and forgotten, had it hot been for the statesman who, like a magician, waved his hand and turned everything to gold. It is now about 20 years since Sir Julius-—at that time plain Mr Vogel—land in New Zealand, attracted, as many more were, by the discovery of gold in Otago. Previously to coming to this colony Mr Vogel had settled in Victoria, where, though quite a young man, he had made a name for himself as a journalist and politician. It must have been about the year 1853 when he arrived at Melbourne, for soon after that date he was at Dunolly, where ho established a chemists’s shop. Mr Vogel had studied metallurgy before leaving the old country, a,nd his knowledge enabled him tp "discover the preseiice of tin in Ihe 1 auriferous deposits of that district, but that metal was taken small account of when so much that was of more value was, apparently, so much more abundant. Mr Vogel was a constant contributor to the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser , and his articles brought him prominently before the public; he afterwards became the editor of that journal, and in that capacity advocated an almost identical policy for Victoria with that which he eventually initiated in New Zealand. An unsuccessful attempt to enter the General Assembly induced him to turn his attention to this colony, which, towards the close of 1861, was attracting tradesmen and gold diggers from Australia. Mr Vogel landed at Dunedin, and was at once offered the editorship of the Otago Daily Times , which he accepted, and it was to his pen that the success, popularity, and extension of that journal were due. A year or two later on, Mr Vogel obtained a seat in the Provincial Council, and not long afterwards was elected to a seat in the House of Representatives. In 1869 he joined Sir William Fox’s Ministry as Colonial Treasurer, and in the following year announced his public works and immigration policy. For a long time previously the colony had been suffering from native wars and commercial depression, and it is no exaggeration to say that in a year after the country had committed itself to that bold policy it was as though New Zealand

had emerged from inky : darkness into the bright sunshine of day. With the short intermission of one month—the duration of the Stafford Ministry-—Sir Julius was connected with the Government either as Colonial Treasurer or Premier, in what has been termed the Continuous Ministry, from 1869 to close of 1876, when he went home as Agent-General. In that position his services were none the less useful to the colony, and it was a cause of very general regret that the differences which arose between himself and the Government led to his resignation of the appointment. We trust we have shown that Sir JVogel is no adventurer ; that he has worked hard for all that he has accomplished for the colony, and for all that he has obtained for himself. That he is entitled to receive a hearty and cordial welcome no one will deny, for to none is the colony so much, indebted for statemanship as to Sir Julius Vogel. —Hawkes Bay Mercury,