THE BANQUET TO THE HON. MR VOGEL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 37, 10 January 1874, Page 7

THE BANQUET TO THE HON. MR VOGEL

A BASQUE r was given to th« fTo-i. Mr rojjel, in DaiK'din, on AI mdiy evening lust, and a E>ivn of £500 presented to him. The Superintendent occupied the chair.

Un Excellency, m rcsponc'in* to the toast of hu health, shovvod the shortcomings of tho Provincial Institutions of Ot.i,'o, and hiped his remarks would be taken in a e.indi.l spirit. The lion. J. Vogel, in the course of the speech in which ho responded to the toa&t of his h'*alth, saul : —It is quito truL% and it hut been said twice already this evening, and no one feels it moro th-m I do myself, fiiit whatever success I may meet with in political hfj cm ntver be dissociated from my connection with this Provmcu a, id with tliis City. . . The .N;it:v,' qi.,»a i<".: i^ .10 longer t'.K otie-ibiorbing question which takes ,c it-eifull the care and attention of those in° whose charge the Government of the Colony is pi iced. It means that there id now time to look toother q u-stions than that of lhe Native quojtiou that there is time to look to those questions which really concern most those who hive c.i-»r, in their loU as colonists in Nj,v Zj^lin I — that there is time t-> look to questions which aifoct tlu-ic moral, their social and their material progress and prospo.ity. . J think wo have 1.iv,0 to be xevy gmtolul to Un Excell^nc-v" in coming here not to u'ter floweiy speeche-i, but to give tlie e/pro*sion oi his itiatuie opinion upon your institutions [a* lie liads them You, Sir, have bind that you cannot disguise IVoin yourself the feeling that there uuy be a ivnctijn fion the cpkuJod proipcuty no«prevailing in the Province and 1.1 the Colony. Anl I think joii havo very wisely suid that such a rev -lion is likely to take tho form of individual buffering rather than suffering by the Colony as a whole. I a"reo with you Some inuy, from want ot' wisdom or owe specul:ition° or from v isfortiui' , have to go to the wuL B .But tli3 material wey.kh created in the Province cannot und will not be destroyed. ... I Jed very much gratified to know that there are present, on thb occrifci^n, many of those gentlemen who ut other tunes liavo rot found the in selves upon the same sido in politics as myself, and who, politically, 1 may number as my opponents. Personally, Ido not think J can sny they tire my opponents. Personally, lum not conscious of any reason why I should have occasioned any personal antagonism, to myself; a>id personally, lam uuconscious of this, that even in cases of political opposition' I rarely fouud oc-asion to comphiiu of want ofpcr3olv.il considor-itioii. .

I can remember tbo time when Dunedin did not boast of the splendid edifices which it now possesses. I can remember the time when the city was very much smaller in dimensions and character. I can remember the time when there was not that settled condition in its affairs that there now is. I 3an remember the time when it had not attained to that position amongst the cities of New Zealan ; which it now holds, and which it has not. got to assert, but has readily conceded difficulties which the Government remained under — in the ats^nce of an to it. . . Since the last session of the Assembly, one of the greatest opportunity of making public utterances such -.s I am now able <o make— has been the misrepresentations which have gone forth upon the subject of the indebtedness of the Colony. Now, I shall state very briefly the actual facts. Probably I shall state them so briefly that you will not catch the items as I state them, but if they find their way into piint they will be of great use outside.— (Hear, heur.) Well, gentlemen, the amount of indebtedness of the Colony on the 30th June last was £6 466 000, and Provincial indebtedness £3,156.000, which would muke a total of £9,622,000, lifter deducting the amount invested in New Zealand securities on account of the sinking fund. As far as Pi ovincial indebtedness was concerned,it is no doubt primarily a Colonial liability — but at the same timp, it is secured primarily also upon the land revenue of the colony. And of the J immense nature of that revenue, you may perhaps gain an adequate idea, when I tell you that from the Ist July, 1872, to 20th December. 1873^ exclusive of gold, the luud revenue of the colony amounted to £ 1,370,1. 00; and when you come to know that in a year and a-half £1,370,000 wns returned as a land revenue of tho Colony, you need not, I think, be very fearful of a liability of between £3,0C0,000 and £4,000,000 on account of tho provinces wiih such v security us the land revenue at Us back. Well, there remained on the 30th June, 1872, to be negotiated for £2,352 1 0C0 of loans already authorised, making altogether, with all the loans authorised up to date, which are negotiated, a liability of £11,974,000. Gentlemen, beyond that amount authorised to be raised, there was required to complete the railways authorised up to the end of the session of 1872— some 766 miles of railway— in addition to the amount already nam<d, £1,556,000. Adding to that the previous liability, wo have a total of F, 13,860,000 ; not by any means as the pi escnt debt, but as the debt which will exist when the 766 miles of railway are made and some millions of money have been spent on works, £200,000 spent on Native lands, £400,000 on roads in the North Island, and £300,000 on works on goldfieldsWhen these amounts are expended, and when you have 760 miles of railway mude, then your total liabilities may be estimated ot £13,860,000.