SIR J. VOGEL'S LATEST PROJECT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8987, 27 February 1888, Page 6 (Supplement)

SIR J. VOGEL'S LATEST PROJECT.

[ A BIG ATLAS OF THE PACIFIC. The local papers here (says our Welling- ! ton correspondent) are exercised with ' the probable and possible causes of Sir Julius Vogel's visit to Europe. The morning journal ventured upon a statement that the late Treasurer was going Home ■ to publish an "atlas." The statement is emphatically denied by an evening contemporary. 1 think I am -in a position to throw some light upon this subject, gathered from authentic sources. I should not have regarded the matter as deserving of any special importance, but that the true story is the latest chapter of a very curious political history. Everyone knows the great interest always felt by the late Treasurer in the Pacific Islands. That interest can be traced in his celebrated Polynesian scheme, in his Pacific Islands Committee, and in a large number of speeches and deliverances upon the prospective value of trade with these islands, I have before me the prospectus of a new company with which the name of Sir Julius Vogel is associated by those who are likely to be best informed as to his object in going home. The title of this company is " The Pacific Islands Publishing Company." Its capital is to be £40,000, in 4000 shares of £10 each, and in addition 1000 founders' shares of £10 each. The company is to be formed with the object of preparing and publishing a beautifully-illustrated work giving a full history and account of the lands and islands within and surrounding the Pacific, communication with which will be aided by the Panama CanaL The work is to be dedicated to AL Lesseps, who has already accepted the dedication. It will be issued at ten guineas a coot. It will be published simultaneously in French and English and (if sufficient inducement offers) in German and Spanish. The first number will be exhibited at the French Universal Exhibition to be held in Paris in 1889. The memorandum of association furnishes the several powers of the directors to edit, print, publish, to engage writers, artiste, translators, and make arrangements for writers, artiste, engravers, and others travelling to the islands. For the purposes of the publication, the company is to be incorporated under the Companies Act 1882, and the liability of shareholders is to be limited. The book is to be of the Largest size, and the artists are to be of the highest reputation. It will be of the same class in regard to art and letterpress as the magnificent pictorial views of the Australian colonies which are just now issuing from the colonial press. Each number will issue at five shillings ; each founder's share will not receive dividends until the ordinary shareholders shall have received back the whole of their capital. The following paragraph, however, is the clause which points more particularly to the question which is being asked by everybody here just now :—" It is intended to at once institute canvassing in Australia and New Zealand for subscriptions, and to send home someone with special authority to make arrange ments for carrying out the objects of the company, as specified in the momorandum of association. If this enterprise should prove successful its importance cannot be denied. Such is the Dook; Sir Julius Vogel is the man."