MR W. L. REES ON THE VOGEL ADMINISTRATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1300, 28 October 1880, Page 2

MR W. L. REES ON THE VOGEL ADMINISTRATION.

A series of letters by Mr "W. L. Rees on New Zealand Politics and Politicians is just now appearing in the columns of the Wamjanui Herald. It is not necessary to say that the pen of Mr Rees is unsparingly severe. One of the letters opens with a description of the New Zealand of 1870, and the writer proceeds in grandiloquent language and with characteristic modesty to sketch the course which the Government of that day should have followed, continuing in this strain :—: — Contrast all this with the ton years of New Zealand history under the rule of Julius Vogel and his friends. They fouud a country quietty prosperous ; they have brought it to the verge of bankruptcy. They found many Legihlatures, of a simplicity of construction hitherto unknown, to do their duty fairly to the people, and make wi-eand just law/, under which these people might live in peace ; they destroyed nil those Legislatures but oup, and t.hit one they entirely corrupted. They found a Legislature in which the great thoughts and the noble deeds of the 11 mighty departed" and of state-men ami philanthropists still living were spoken of with respect and received with enthusiasm — fhey rauirht it to ricVcule every word and thoua-ht of greatness and to revile anyone who ventured to emulate the priories of the past or to look forward with hope to the future. They found a Parliament renowned above all Coloni il Parliaments for sinsrleness of purpose, for honesty, and for good feeling. They have made it selfish, corrupt, and revengeful. They assumed the charge of a young nation just starting upon its history, a child of illustrious parentage, a seedling from the oaks of Britain, full of life and restless energy. They offered to guide its councils, to frame its laws, to make it lie down in green pastures, to lead it beside the still waters. This young nation, full of great but nascent powers, confided itself to the hands of these bhepherds. They taught it that the only good was gold or broad acres, won like JNaboth's vineyard by unholy means. They stifled every noble aspiration and scoffed at every noble sentiment. They became the custodians of their country's honor, of its credit, of its wealth, of its lands. They dragged its honour through the dirt and filth of a thousand discreditable actions, they ruined its oredit, they squandered its wealth recklessly and wrongfully, they gave away its lands to themselves and their friends against the law, they libelled citizens and were oonvicted by a i jury of their countrymen, they accused others of libelling them, and another jury found that the dreadful charges made were not a libel. From the Crowned Head of Victoria to the most ignorant savage in the laud, they injured and wronged all classes. History does not show an easier path than that which lay before them to greatness and to renown. History does not tell of a more complete and disastrous failure. They fell like Lucifer from the battlements of Heaven, but not only for a summer's day into the deep abyss— unless indeed we count their long reign as a summer's day. They fell without an effort and, as it were naturally— Facilis descensm Averni. Mr Rees then proceeds to impeach the Vogel Administration before the bar of public opinion as traitors to their country, and Heaven only knows what besides.

Abtpul tramp (to the Rector) : " Your sermon was very much thought to last night, sir "Rector (flattered): " Indeed, my man ! I'm very glad if any efforts of mine—" Tramp : " Yes, sir, I hcern a great many a-talkin' of it in the portch, and I was a-walkin' over to Ramsgate yesterday, and my 'at blew off into the sea, and you haven't got a 'old 'at you could give-— -" [Usual result.]