The "Suppressed Despatch" of Sir Julius Vogel.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3953, 30 August 1881, Page 2

The "Suppressed Despatch" of Sir Julius Vogel.

[By Telegraph.]

Wellington, Saturday

The following is Sir Julius Vogel's " suppressed despatch," which was relumed to him by the Government, but has just come out by the San Francisco mail:—

" The Hon the Premier, Wellington.— Sir, —In continuation of my letter of the 7th, I have now the honour to further reply to your letter of the 4th of December, in which you are good enough to tell me that the Government regret that I thought it necessary, out of my own pocket, to pay certain officers the amouut which, for six months, they would lose by the operation of the reduction of the ten per cent, on their salaries, and in which you also express the opinion that the last paragraph of my letter to which yours was a reply, was uncalled for. " I am not disposed to suffer censure without defending myself, and you must therefore excuse a very frank reply on my part. In both cases you shelter the Government behind Parliament, and make it appear that I have committed an offence against the latter. I cannot, however,- tadmit this view. A Government is responsible for the legislation to which it submits, and should not remain in office if Parliament forces on it measures to which it knows it cannob give effect, or of which it disapproves. It is in the very essence of the constitution of Parliament that the Government which had it, and which has means of information at its command not open to individual members, should interfere to prevent wrongful legislation. I assert with the utmost respect that the Government had the means at its command of knowing that the vote, if accepted for the AgentGeneral's Department, was not sufficient to meet its engagements, and also that it had the means of knowing that the reduction of ten per cent, from the salaries of Civil servants was a straining of legal and moral obligations.

" My answer would not be complete if I did not examine into the plea of necessity. The Government admit that the Civil Servants were, by the action taken, subject to hardships. One would think such an admission sufficient, but the hardship is sought to be justified because of the State's necessity. I cannot but think that the colony bas suffered greatly from the melancholy view taken by the Government of its capabilities. As I have already remarked, New Zealand was not singular in the depression that overtook it. Ido not think that during the last four years any country or colouy has escaped suffering from the wave of depression which, with astonishing uniformity, has with more or less energy rolled over the entire world. It was reserved to the Government of New Zealand to take the singular course of prostrating itself before what commonsense should have told it, which, if not exaggerated by panic, would soon be at an end. That which was coming was obvious enough, and provision could have been made to meet it. After the five million loan was negotiated, the expenditure should have been somewhat contracted. I am aware that the Government spoke of liabilities having been entered into for works, but such liabilities could easily have been distributed over a longer period. For the rest the Government seemed to anxiously instil a want of confidence into the minds of the people with no other apparent object than to stop the policy of public works and immigration, and to deprive the Civil Servants of the incomes they were entitled to. After all, beyond the comparatively small reduction in the ordinary revenue, which could have been met by the re-imposition of the tea and sugar duties and other remedies, not of a prejudiced nature, the worst that had happened was that the sales of land were postponed. The land still remained, and with patience was sure \o recover its value and demand. It was open to you to do that which almost every civilised Government had done—postponed the deficiency till the crisis was over. You were not threatened with any difficulty in obtaining money. The loan agents sug gested your obtaining what you required in Australia. The experience of the late Victorian loan showed that, had you acted on the hint, you must have succeeded. Later still I cabled you a plan by which you could obtain money, and as you did not entertain it, presumed you fouud you could meet your requirements in some other and better way ; but the fact is, and there is uo denying it, that what the Government wanted was to persuade the peopl-e they must give up their colonising policy. Ido not for a moment suppose the Government were not sincere in believing that it was for the best this should be dove. They looked at it from the view of the large landowners who, having obtained the railways they wanted, were fearful of possible future direct taxation. To a certain extent these views secured their own fulfilment, for the credit of the colony was depressed to an extent that threatened a breach of all confidence iv it. Fortunately, sensible men in this couutry saw through it, and refused to believe in the bogey repudiation, which, if not actually paraded, was hinted at in the background. Had tlie alarm of the Government been fully echoed here, it is impossible to exaggerate the gravity of the disaster that might have been occasioned, j The financial institutions of the colony are of course, in emergeucy, liable to the heaviest State taxation, and a run might have taken place on them, the end of which to persons of property in the colony could not have been foreseen. A Government should be something beyond a mere routine department. It should have the ability to devise and tho boldness to execute whatever the interests of the State require. Instead of being overawed by tho difficulties which New Zealand, in common with other colonies and 'countries, was meeting, they might have seen that the time had arrived when the grand opportunity had come for New Zealand for which if; had been laying itself out. Since 1870 the colony had been flreparing itself to become the home for a large population. It bad said by its policy, if the means of communication be opened there is room for millions of people and millions of capital. When, so to speak, it had placed its house in order, a convulsion was occurring in. this country, the consequences of which was to drive thousands and thousauds of persons possessing the means and the knowledge most wanted hi the colony to searou out for themselves new homes. Just when Hieyr Zealand might have bad these iv any number, iv company with practically umliuiited capital, the Government so dfeuried tb6 colouy fclwl r&luttauUy they '

looked for another home than that of th« ' Groat Britain of the South,* to which their eyes were fondly turned. And so the policy of colonisation is at an end, and the spectacle is presented of the Government concentrating all its energies on disputes with the natives just as in the time preceding the era of colonisation. History repeats itself. We have in 1880 a repetition of the condition of 1869. " My health and circumstances forbid my returning to reside in New Zealand to take such part in public affairs as my fellow colonists might wish to confide to me, but I should be insensible to and ungrateful for the many marks of confidence the people of New Zealand have reposed in me, did I hesitate to express opinions which m;»y be of some humble service to them. I cannot fail to remember that for seven years with the break only of a few weeks, I was continually in the Government, and that 1 did not retire because of the wish of the people or Parliament.—l have, &c, Julius Yogel."