HON. MR. VOGEL’S LITTLE BILL.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 26, 6 November 1871, Page 3

HON. MR. VOGEL’S LITTLE BILL.

When it became known that the illustrious Julius had appointed himself a plenipotentary extraordinary to America and England, and started on his travels with a suite of attendants befitting his imagined dignity, his proceedings were watched with grave misgivings all over the Colony. People shook their heads, saying that something would come of it, and something has coine of it with a vengeance. Those who read the future of the great financier by the light of his past career,predicted a heavy pull on the public purse as one of the most prominent results of the Vogel embassy ; but even those who allowed most liberally for “ expenses” must have been staggered when the bill was actually presented by Air. the House of Representatives. £3,1G5 10s. fid. is the modest little sum which Mr. Vogel has disbursed during the 220 days of his pleasure trip, or nearly £ls per day (not to* speak of his pay of £I,OOO a year). The following are the items making up the sum named :

The richest part of Mr. Vogel’s apportionment is the item of defence —£665 10s5d. —precise to a penny. What would his colleague, the Native Minister, think of being compelled to furnish his accounts of defence and Maori expenditure with equal exactness ? It really appears. a monstrous thing that because the Colonial Treasurer took it into his head, in opposition to the Wishes of his colleagues, and without the sanction of the Legislature, to indulge in a visit to Europe, and play the big man at Washington and London, the taxpayers of this unfortunate Colony should be required to meet a bill of £3,000 I for money fooled and squandered away. The Colony has received no. benefit from Vogel’s mission quite the reverse ; all that he has done could have been accomplished better far without his intervention ; he has exceeded even the powers reluctf utly wrung from the Government,. and. has, while neglecting the duties he is paid so so highly for, laid the foundation of future trouble and embarrassment in his onesided contracts and unbinding bargains. It may be difficult to call him to account, but the House can put a cheok on such practises in future by refusing to vote these monstrous -l expenses,” and we trust such a course will be adopted.. This incidept conveys another warning against trusting the present Ministry with the disbursement of large sums of moneyi

With all their boast of economy, every fresh circumstance which comes to light shows that that virtue is utterly unknown to them; on the contrary, ever lavish of of the public funds for their own purposes and for buying political support — shameless in their disregard of truth — they have well earned for themselves the undesirable distinction of being the most reckless, extravagant, and unscrupulous body of men that ever swayed the destinies of any Colony. —Wellington Evening Post.

Travelling allowances £2,224 8 0 Do do, Secretary 210 10 0 Passages 216 0 0 Telegrams ... 189 8 8 Official rooms, stationary, and incidental expenses... 324 13 9 £3,165 10 5 But the strangest item of this extraordinary bill is the distribution of the amounts among the various public accounts to which they are charged. 11ns is how they are placed— Postal £1,000 0 0 Defence 665 10 5 Public Works, Raising of Loan 1,000 0 0 Do do framing contracts with Messrs. Brogdcn, engaging engineers, and shipment of plant 500 0 0 £3,165 10 5