The New Zealand Premier.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 28, 21 January 1875, Page 3

The New Zealand Premier.

•' " » , •' ■•; If the Hon. Mr Yogel is a prophet, with little or no honor in his own country, a perusal of the following- will prove that, elsewhere he has won laurels in no measured amount : — "- 1. ~: The ' London Standard,' referring to the FTon Mr Vogel's scheme for makingNew Zealand the centre of the Polynesian trade, says :— ." Mr Vogel :is a practical man, who has hud a success hitherto unexampled among" Colonial politiceans. Ho has managed to rule New Zealand for a longer period than did any former Minister, and he appears to have a singular art of converting even his political opponents into admirers and supporters of his policy. Under his administration New-Zealand has advanced in population, in wealth, and in prosperity in a very, extraordinary degree, and continues' to retain a" rate of progress far more rapid than any of her competitors in Australasia. it I* true that the public debt has been increased to over twelve millions, and that some of the pub'ic works are as yet unremunerative. Nevertheless, the colony grows and prospers, and the colonists are flourishing and contented. Whether sound or not, judged by our old-world rules^ Mr Vogel's finance is axtremely popular, and is so far justified ivy the result in that trade, and commerce were never so healthy, business so brifk, capital so plentiful, and labor so well remunerated as at the present day in New Zealand. Among the numerous Prime Ministers of British colonies at present engaged in the process of government all over the world, one of the most conspicuous, by his imagination, .enterprise, and daring, is Mr Vogel, the Premier of New Zealand. No one will consider this too flattering a characterisation who have been enabled to study, .the very remarkable state paper in which Mr: Vogel unfolds his scheme of making New Zealand the centre of a Polynesian dominion, fulfilling the functions of the Empire in the South Seas in the same manner as Canada fulfils them in North America. A vision like this, in these degenerate days when philosophprs calmly tell us that our Imperial mission is over, when British statesmen^ openly favor disintegration, " and the Colonial Office is assumed to exist, only -for; the purpose, of discharging the colonies, fills us with a certain awe for its sublime spirit of mal apropos. !■ Mr- Vpoel, , however, is quite serious, and does not appear to have tieeh daUnted by the' rebuffs sonTe earlier proposals of his respecting the annexation of Fiji and the Samoari Islands had received from the Imperial Govern ment?^' Standard/ •: ! A recent article on the S.quth,r Sea Island scheme in the San Francisco j 'News "Letter '-concludes thus :^lt c is ] plain that the, company ,;wiah ,to make New Zealand the Emporium. of the j Pacific, and our merchants may before long 1 fine a powerful competitor for even; I the trade of the Sandwich Islands. That it is an emirreritly wise scheme; we are. ready to afsert; > • It, is only second in importance to the great rail-. I roaJ and immigration policy" by 'which J Mr. yogel, is. fa?t making 1 ; a nation, of New Zealand.. Witli ; accurate knowledge arid a clearapprefemtiohofwhatwe are writing', aboutj ewe; have>little hesitation in. saying .that no part, of the British colonial possession is to-day blessed with' a more far-sighted r etatp^-'j ihanship than that long; displayed , .by the yery remarkable man who, by this scheme, proposes tcr acquire^ tlKFtbmV mercial supremacy ipf.the,S.ottthiPacific.