The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1885. SIR JULIUS VOGEL’S SPEECH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1318, 24 March 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1885. SIR JULIUS VOGEL’S SPEECH.

We hardly know how to deal with Sir Julius Vogei's speech to his Christchurch constituents. The Lyttelton Times indulges in the most fulsome praise of. it, the Otago Daily Times thinks it a wonderful speech considering he had previously delivered two other speeches, and some of the lesser lights are equally extravagant. What was init to excite so much admiration puzzles us. He made but the barest reference to the history of the great political crisis on the tide of which he went into office ; be gave no indication of what the future policy of the Government would be ; not one word did he say to indicate how the question of Local Government would be dealt with; in fact, the speech seemed to us the emptiest ministerial pronouncement we have ever read. What the newspapers saw in the speech to excite them to such extravagance we caDnot make out, unless it was the bragging egotistical tone which gave it so decidedly Vogelistic a character. It was a brag from beginning to eud. He bragged of Mr Stout's value aa an astute lawyer lo the Ministry ; he bragaed of Mr Eallance's enthusiasm, as a Minister of Lands and the soft sawder' he uses in dealing with the natives ; he bragged of Mr Buckley making himself acquainted with hospitals; he bragged of how Mr Lirnach wan making himself acquainted with mines; lie bragged of Mr Tole being very ÜBeful to mind the house while the other Ministers were "gallivanting" all over the country; and finally he bragged of having worked 70 hours a week regularly since Parliament was prorogued. Who could find fault with a servant, who has not the spur of a master to urge him on, that works 70 hours a week] It was nowonder his Obristchurch constituents voted that lie was v/orthy of support; it was no woDder tliey were delighted with having so hard-working a representative! However, most people regard those who brag too much about themselves as not at all equal to their own representations. No doubt it is very good of Mr •

Tole to remain in Wellington to keep an ©ye to business while the others were mak* ing themselves acquainted with the colony, and it is very pood of tiie others to travel about at the expense of the public, but we should like to see something done, and above all to get from Sir Julius Yogel a forecast of what the Government intend to do in the immediate future. This he failed to give. He certainly gave a prominence to the Cheap Money question which it had not received before, but to our mind his utterances on this point are unworthy of his reputation as a financier. He condemned the proposal to establish a National Bank, v because, he said, forced paper money would lead to disastrous results. Of course, we never expected that Sir Julius Vogel would take up such a scheme. His whole life has been spent amongst money-lenders ; they are his back-bone, and he is the lute upon which they play their tunes. It could not be expected therefore that he would take up such a proposal, but we might reasonably expect that when he took the subject in hand, he would treat it in a manner worthy of his reputation. Now, we are in a position to say that the first schema submitted to. Sir Julius Vogel was not a paper money scheme. Immediately after Sir Julius Vogel landed in this colony Mr Twomey submitted to him his Bank Scheme, but no “ forced paper money ” Was contemplated by it; It will be remembered that this scheme suggested to borrow £2,000,000 ; issue notes exac'ly on the same terms as the present private banks issue them, buy the Bank of New Zealand, and take over mortgages on land as they fell due. This was the original scheme suggested to Sir Julius Vogel, and surely when we remember that all the banks in this colony have only £1,735,746 in coin between them, it could not be said that a National Bank having £2,000,000 in coin worked on forced paper money. If the banks of this colony can do the business of the colony with only £1,735,746 in coin, surely a National Bank could do a quarter of that business with £2,000,000 in coin. Sir Julius Vogel knows this as well as any man can tell him ; he knows also that it would not be necessary to borrow one penny to establish a National Bank, but it is not in his line ; it does not suit bis book, and he cannot be expected to take to it. He might, however, have represented the question fairly, and shown that it would be injudicious, but he did not do so. He misrepresented the Bank Scheme, but affirmed the principle involved in it by suggesting another mode of securing to farmers cheap money. We publish the full text of this scheme elsewhere ; it is our o'd acquaintance, the money-lending one, which every sensible man who has ever thought the matter out has discarded as impracticable. This is merely a redherring drawn across the scent of the National Bank with the view of turning attention away from it. Let no tnan be deceived by this ; Sir Julius Vogel is not in earnest in this ; it is one of his cunning devices to secure cheap popularity. The struggling farmer is not the man be cares for, and he will not try to improve his position. As for the fear of opposition from the existing banks, we think people make more of that than is necessary. If the banks became disagreeable it would not be difficult to keep them quiet. They owe the people of this colony nearly £10,000,000, and if they were asked for it they could not pay the one-fifth of it in gold, for the very reason they have not the money. If the people withdrew their accounts from the banks, and refused to take their notes —for a bank note is not a legal tender—they would very soon cry out for mercy. The banks are just as dependent on the people as the people are dependent on them : by the people they live, and to anger their customers in this matter would result in their complete discomfiture. We verily believe the banks would do nothing of the kind, because they koow that to make the colony prosperous would result in their own prosperity as well. We shall deal with this subject on another occasion.