N.Z. MAIL. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1890. SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 933, 17 January 1890, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1890.

SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

Time was when the announcement that Sir Julius Vogel had decided

to return toNewZeal-and and to re-enter public life would have created quite a stir in our little political world. All that is changed now. The intelligence is received with a smile of amusement and a careless expression of wonder “ what he means to be up to this time?” Nobody cares very much whether he comes back or stays away. His name is no longer one “to conjure with.” The recollection of bio egregious failure as Colonial Treasurer from 1884 to 1887 is still too fresh, and the pressure of the tremendous burden of taxation which he devolved upon the New Zealand colonists through the,half-million deficit which his Government left behind, has not yet ceased to be acutely felt by the victims. They do not bear him any personal ill-will. On the contrary, they heartily . hope he is doing well, and waxing fat out of the profits of his curious book “ A.D. 2000.” But they do not wish to see him again at the head of New Zealand affairs before that date He will not find a strong party awaiting his leadership. His late political associates will not rejoice to welcome him back in their ranks or at their head. Indeed, long before his departure he had become a serious embarrassment to them. His leadership of the Opposition was weak to a degree, and in almost every respect singularly injudicious. All his former tact and his skill in keeping himseif “in touch” with tbe House had vanished. His financial speeches and criticisms were so poor and empty that the newer “ generation who knew not Joseph ” as he was of yore, were perplexed to gU9ss how he had ever enjoyed so high a reputation as a financier. To this loss of power was added an unwonted petulance of tone, which at times, as in the case of his unprovoked attack upon the Speaker, became absolutely offensive. In short, Sir Julius Vogel left the Colony as an utter and admitted political failure. His best friends could not but feel that his day was past in New. Zealand, and if lie were wise he would frankly recognise the fact, instead of attempting again to pose as a leader.

His secret of success in colonial politicals a secret no longer. People see now that it consisted simply in purchasing support, mainly by means of reckless borrowing and spending, and that the fruit of that policy is severe depression, compulsory retrenchment and heavy taxation —the two latter, moreover, coming just when the country can least bear the pressure. Nobody hankers for a repetition of the dire experience of 1887. The pinch is still too sharply felt. We do not mean to assert that Sir Julius Vogel's resumption of a political leadership is impossible. There are no limits to human credulity, and he may be able to persuade a few “ silly souls” that the moon is made of green cheese and that he alone can give them the first slice. But this is scarcely credible. Political memories are short, but hardly so short as that. It is not yet six years since Sir Julius Vogel came out, when the Atkinson Ministry had to admit a deficit due in part to an unwise concession to popular clamour for reduced railway rates, and when Ministers were undergoing the penalty of unpopularity for their deficit, and for the steps they were compelled to take to meet it. He succeeded in making a majority believe that he could get rid of the deficiency without increaaingtaxation, h’s method being his favourite ono of fresh borrowing. The result of his t hree years of office was that he left the Colony in a condition of extreme depression with a huge deficit of over half a million, and with heavily increased taxation by his own admission inevitable. Now, people do not want to have that sort of experience ever again. They have given Vogelism long apd most faip trials, and its

result in riach case has been disaster. It is quite conceivable that Sir Julius may have felt his mouth vva'er at the scent of a probable big surplus, and may have thought that now would be his time to take the Colony by storm with some brilliant and seductive scheme of fictitious progress founded on wholesale borrowing. It would be fully in keeping with all the traditions of Vogelism that he should rush out hither and cry : —“ Now is your time! Strike while the iron’s hot ! You have a, large surplus, and your credit is restored. Go in at once and borrow all you want to finish your railways and harbour works, and everything else! You may never have such another chance!’-’ But we hope and believe he would appeal in vain. The colonists of New Zealand are at last beginning to enjoy prosperity of a really sound and genuine character, founded on solid industry and thrift, and we cannot think that they would readily fall in with any proposal for a return to the bad old ways, whose hollowness and unsatisfactoriness have been so thoroughly exposed and so bitterly felt. Sir Julius Vogel should seek fresh fields and pastures new. There are other countries waiting exploitation. He Bhould go and exploit Africa or South America. The Brazilian Republic might offer fine scope for his financial genius. In New Zealand it is not wanted. He has long been on that “ little list ”of people who “ never will be missed.” It is characteristic and instructive that the publication of his intention to re-enter political life ehould have been the signal for speculations as to whom he purposes buying. One theory is that he hopes to secure a Taranaki seat by promoting companies to work the ironsand and petroleum of that district. Another is that once in Parliament he would secure a strong following by pledging himself to make the raising of members’ honorarium to L 250 a cardinal feature of his pro gramme. It is actually asserted by a public writer who —there is no secret about it—is himself a member of Parliament, that “nothing would strengthen Sir Julius so much in the House and contribute to his getting a party of devoted followers as the knowledge that he would raise the honorarium and pursue a liberal policy, as opposed to the mean and paltry policy of retrenchment which most members hate with a perfect hatred . . . retrenchment in the public expenditure means for them a reduced honorarium.” This is truly a nice account to be given of hon. members, and by ono of themselves too 1 Put into plain English it means that Sir Julius Vogel could buy the bulk of our public men, body and soul, by offering the bribe of an increased honorarium! We sincerely trust that this is a libel upon our legislators. They have done many wrong and foolish things, it is true, and have been parties to acts of public bribery in the shape of concessions to their own districts. But we refuse to credit the statement that the majority of them are open to personal corruption. It must not be forgotten that a decisive majority supported Sir Harry Atkinson in his reduction of the honorarium when he declared this course to be necessary. .We think better of our public men than to accept the allegation that they are open to be purchased wholesale for the price of an additional hundred a year of honorarium.