The Poberty Bay Perald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1160, 29 October 1880, Page 2

The Poberty Bay Perald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1880.

A LATE cablegram informs us that it is the intention of Sir Julius Yogel : to/ return to NNetw t Zealand with an ' expressed desire to enter* * once more ' on the arena of politics. The Dunedin Herald in a very sensibly written article thinks it most desirable that Sir'JuLius should enter the Assembly ? : and resume the role of Minister with one or other of the portfolios. Sir Julius won his fame in the Colony, -aiiid L; n6w that he has resigned the * Agent-Generalship, it seems only -•:', 'xiatiiral that he should come back and take a iiiore direct part in the conduct ,' of our /affairs. If he had obtained a ■■•'-■. seat in the Imperial- Parliament we cannot doubt that he would in great . measure have i*epresented New Zealand, and if it be now his purpose to return, there is just as little doubt that his disappointment will turn out '^■'io have been rather fortunate for .himself and the i Colony. ,- It is hardly .. probable^ that he--v?qu]d ever have -risen to anything like eminence in British politics;; A Colonial training is no great recommendation at Home : • adventurers besi'les are regarded with the utmost suspicion, and though Sir Julius. Yogel was no more of an adventurer in New Zealand than the '. .most of his. fellow colonists, he would :■:. ■ infallibly have borne that character as 'an English! politician ; in England V moreover there is no lack of states- :; men of the highes b ability ; so that even our old Premier's undoubted talents would scarcely have attracted notice in the greatest Assembly in the" world, and nothing but the luckiest of accidents could have put even a modest under-secretaryship within his reach. It is true that two }■■!' colonials have held (and one of them at present holds) high office in the .English.- Parliament ; but both Mr. :■; ,s Lowe (that was) and Mr. Childbrs had -great connections and great] : inflnence at Home ; aud of the former it may be a<33ed that his remarkable .powers of intellect could nob be . pbscui-ed or nullified even by his own not less remarkable imprudence. It would be hazardous in the extreme for the very ablest man in any Britith Colony (to say nothing of the aspiring geniuses who cannot open their -•mouth's without doing violence to :_ the Queen's English) to try his! fortune '■' ' ; in' tne arena of British politics ; and ; it wasj we think, singularly fortunate for Sir Julius Vogel's reputation that he sbould~have been rejected by "the Falmouth electors. He would almost certainly have sunk into 'comparative obscurity among the six hundred and old gentlemen who make up the House of Commons ; whereas if he returns to New Zealand he will still be in the world's eye, and have more influence on the fortunes of the British empire than any mere private member ■,; of ..thafc august assembly. Here he would labor under no disabilities, and ■■•'.' that he is taller, so to speak, by a head and. shoulders than any of our > politicians, Sir George Grey himself (as a. politician) not excepted, few will deny. In saying this we mean no dis<respect to the present Government or any member thereof. In theactualcondition of affairs, the Colony could not desire, and even if it v did, certainly ' could = not obtain a better Premier than Mr. Hall. : He is a shrewd, : ycautiqus, safe administrator, as well as one of the ablest men in the country ; and long may he hold thg office

which he so worthily fills. But neither the Premier nor any of his colleagues, greatly superior though they be to their predecessors, can boast of much originality of mind. They are for the most part plain, unpretending men, and though they are admirably adapted to the peculiar needs of the Colony, we could scarcely look to them for a new policy that would give a'stimulus to the development of our resources ; and we all know what was the ■ upshot of the very original attempts in this direction of the great Liberal Ministry. The truth is, that New Zealand statesmanship is fast | coming to a very low pass ; the older heads disappearing one by one, while there is not the faintest sign of a single rising genuis among the Parliamentary juveniles. In such melancholy circumstances the return of Sir Julius "Yogel would be a great boon to the Colony. If we cannot grow our own statesmen — which seems really to be the case — we shall have to request the Agent-General to sendus a supply, along with the humbler sort of immigrants, from the Old Country. We have however a kind of right to Sir Julius, though it would be a little difficult to tell what effect his return at the present timewould have on our small political world. Retrenchment is not exactly his forte. But he is not likely to make his appearance among us before the Colony has got its affairs put to rights, and is ready for a new start. Then his services would indeed be invaluable, whatever place he might hold in the Government. We have frequently called attention to the decay of enterprise which has been partly the result of the heroic Public Works policy with which the name i of Sir Julius Yogel is so intimately associated : though it is only fair to say that the heroic element was subjected in the original draught of the great scheme to prudent conditions and restraints. If the Colony is to keep pace with its neighbours, or even attain to such a degree of prosperity as shall enable it to bear its burden of debt with tolerable ease, it must assuredly bestir itself, and do something more than merely boast and babble of its resources. How to make the enormous expenditure of the last eight or ten years yield a profitable return, and how to inspire the people with a wise, and bold spirit of enterprise — these are already, and they will become more and more, the burning questions of the day, and we know of nobody that conld give us better help in our efforts to solve them than Sir Julius Yogel.