SIR JULIUS VOGEL AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 115, 14 November 1881, Page 3

SIR JULIUS VOGEL AND THE GOVERNMENT.

-— ? It may bo recollpcted that tho famous Suppressed Letter from Sir Julius Vogel to the Government, whioh we published on the 27th of last August, expressly purported to be, "in continuation of my letter of the 7tb.|.' That "letter of tho 7th" has not hitherto-been printed, but is now published by the, Dnnodin Echo. Tho greater portion sfj the .letter is occupied with an elaborate argument in favour of the claim set up by Sir Julius for additional remuneration on account of tho floating of the last loan. The latter part, however, deals with New Zealand politics, especially in relation to the Public Works policy, and will therefore be read with interest. Sir Juliua Vogol says : — I am not surprised at the opinion you express concerning the recompense I have enjoyed for my services, a : nce that opinion is consistent with the treatment I have received from your Government, as well as with the essential difference in our politics. When I took office under Sir William Fox m 1869-70, tho colony was in a greatly more depressed condition than when you took office in 1879. The policy of my colleagues and myself was founded on an entire belief in the resources of New Zealand and the necessity of developing them. The depression which followed your accession to office was very differently viewed by you. Fortunately the effects of our policy still sufficiently remained to tide the colony through the blank despair of your polioy. And, as I have before said, had it not fortunately happened that people in England had a better opinion of the colony's resources than that expressed by its Government) moat serious financial disasters might have followed the panic-stricken utterapces of last year. You are good chough to express a halting approval of" my opinion that good faith domands from the statesmen of New Zealand the completion of the trunk system of railways., lam amuaed by your hint of my want os !Knbwledge! Knbwledge of existing conditions. I fanoy i£-I visited New Zealand the colonists would have as much faith in my knowledge of existing conditions as in your a. Frankly however, with the way in which you banish into the remote future a question to which, in my mind, the good faith of the statesmen of the colony is pledged. Those who have made vast fortunes out of the railway polioy must remember that they owe the railways adjacent to their lands to the colony's, credit, and that that credit was given bocause it was believed in all parts of the colony that tho scheme of trunk lines would be fulfilled. There is no reason whatevor why tho fruition of the original plan over a moderate period should be delayed. Properly placed beforo the British Public, such a echeme would be welcomed. Railway enterprise has made enormous strides during the last few years. Money for railways in America, remote from settlement and civilisation, is being supplied at little over 4fc per cent., and money to any reasonable extent would be forthcoming for railways in a British colony backed np by the contingent guarantee of the Government. As a matter of fact public opinion all over tho world has justified the polioy of New Zealand, and you are now living in infinitely better times for giving that policy effeofc than when it was commenced. It would, be a sad thing for New Zealand that timidity and selfishness should stand in the way of a complete and early development of a thoroughly effective spstem o£ railways. Depend on it, if the colony will make the railway?, the railways will make the colony."