SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1223, 27 October 1874, Page 4

SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY.

Mr W. L. Kees, barrister, of Auckland, well-known to many West Coast residents, has published a pamphlet on " The Coming Crisis." The Auckland Star, in review, says, " The aulhor has adopted a very popular style of writing, and the pamphlet is one of the most interesting and readable political brochures that has come into our hands for a long time. Many of the figures given are startling and calculated to arrest the attention of the most indifferent observer of the times. Altogether the work is a thoughtful essay on the financial position of New Zealand, and is deserving of careful perusal." The Star extracts the following amusing sketch of Mr Vogel's introduction to public life in New Zealand, which is worth reproducing : — ,: Mr Vogel's introduction to the (General Assembly was at least romantic. A writ had been issued for the return of a member to the House of Representatives for one of the electoral districts of Duncdin. Mr Gillies, the father of the late Superintendent of Auckland, being Returning Officer, repaired to the appointed place of nomination to perform his duties. Mr Vogel, as editor of the Otago Daily Times, in lien of an ordinary reporter, also attended. The time was one in which men were making money rapidly. The Otago goldfields were very prosperous. Politics were at a discount; they did not pay. Especially was this the case in reference to'the politics of the General Government, for at that time the Provinces were everything. When the scene of operations was reached Mr Gillies began to read the writ to the solitary auditor, Julius Vogel. There was no candidate, no proposer, no public. Suddenly Mr Vogol thought—" I will be elected ?' He went instantly to the adjacent provincial offices • asked two gentlemen (one of them since dead) to come out and nominate and second him, and with them came back to where Mr Gillies j yet stood patiently waiting for the return ' of the futuve dictator of New Zealand. I By this time, however, a crowd was!

gathering. One man, attracted- by the somewhat remarkable circumstance of an elderly gentleman reading a public announcement to nobody, stood to listen ; while Mr Albert Devore, now a solicitor practising in Auckland, on'his way to one of the Courts, also attracted by the peculiar appearance, joined him, Then returned Mr Vogel and the two gentlemen. He was duly proposed, seconded, and declared elected, and the six people separated. The two gentlemen who service.-* launched Mr Vogel upon his political career returned to their official toil, little dreaming of the part they had taken in the history of New Zealand. The strange man who stopped, with open mouth, to Mr Gillies rending to nobody, and who himself supplied an auditory, came there lor a moment unknown, and then passed away into the unknown from whence he came. Mr Devore is a rising solicitor, and Mr Vogel is Premier of New Zealand."