THE WAIRARAPA STANDARD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume 6, Issue 475, 12 September 1876, Page 2

THE WAIRARAPA STANDARD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

It would bo gathered from our last that there was at length a prospect of the long reign of illegality, jobbery, corruption and extravagance being about to be ■brought to a close. The illegal proceedings of the late Ministry, and the illegal appointment of their successors, will in all likelihood be submitted to the Supreme Court for its investigation and decision. In the meantime we trust that the enquiry before the select committee of the House with regard to the late Premier’s proceedings in England will cot be suspended in consequence of later illegal acts of his colleagues having to be investigated. It was bnt the other day nearly the whole press of the colony, out of Auckland and Dnnedin, were singing the praises of Sir Julius VogeL There is now scarcely a newspaper in the Colony, out of Wellington, that has a word to say in favor of him. This is not because he has recently done anything deserving of censure; but because he is no longer Premier of the Colony. The aet we look upon, on the whole, as a matter for congratulation, many of onr contemporaries evidently view with feelings of regret His retirement frem thej Premiership is one of the most fortunate things that could have happened to to the colony. His appointment to the Agent-Generalship is another and a very different matter, and is not so certain as has been generally supposed. With reference to his retirement Mr Waterhouse observed :—“ We must remember that the colony, at the instigation of Sir Julius Vogel, has entered upon a policy which, by Hs boldness, has aroused the apprehension of its own friends, and which is well calculated to create in onr own breasts some feeling of ninminwa That policy ia being now developed; that policy has arrived at a period when the basis upon which it rests is to be tested. It is now et the crucial period of its existence : and it ia at this period that the author of that policy proposes to withdraw from the scene ot his labors, and to leave ns to work out for ourselves the policy which he himself initiated. I cannot bnt feel—and every honorable member, including the Premier, must have the ssme feeling—that both the political and the financial position of the colony are at the present time most unsatisfactory. Politically we have, at the instigation of the Premier, destroyed the form of Constitution under which we have lived; and what have we in its place ? We have, as yet, .little better than nothing to take its place. We have now arrived, likewise, at a period in the history of onr finances when we shall be caOed upon to test the accuracy of those calculations upon which we were induced to enter upon the bold policy to which I hare referred. Onr loans are drawing to an end, our condition as a colony anything but satisfactory; and it is now, after Sir Julius Vogel has received all the kudo* arising from having the control of millions of money, that that honorable gentleman feels that he can, consistently with his duty, withdrew from the scene of bis labors, and leave us to experience the consequences of the policy that we have, at his instigation, involved oorselres in. ”

Whether Sir Julias Vogel ni jollified in retiring under each oirenmataiices we do not pretend to my, all that we are concerned with is that his retirement cannot bat prore in the end in the highest degne advantageous to the coJoej. The action, however,' taken by the Ministry to facilitate his appoint■aak to the Agent-Generalship cannot Jnaagaaaa be justified, for they asnat

Ihave known that he was one of the last { men in the colony fitted by Hs anteceI dents to fill that position. On this subject Mr Waterhouse said “ I consider that that office, which has attached to it the control of such immense sums of public money, should be filled by a man of acknowledged prudence, and a man whose public conduct has been characterized by an observance of the strictest principles of economy. No person who has watched the career of Sir Julius Vogel will contend that these essentials to the discharge of the duties of such an important office as that of Agent-Gene-aal are essentials that characterize the political life of Sir Julius Vogel. The whole course of action of the Government for years past has been one of extravagance ; and it would be a matter for regret were similar principles to those which have actuated the Ministry in past years to be carried out in regard to the administration of the Agent-Gene-ral’s department, where the Agent-Gene-ral would practically be away from the supervision of the Parliament to whom he is now responsible. Nor, in connection with this subject, can I overlook the fact that that honorable gentleman is rendered unfit for that particular appointment, further, by the fact that he has loose ideas as to the degree of responsibility attaching to him in connection with the public moneys of the colony, which mark him out as not being adapted for that office. I refer to the fact that that honorable gentleman during his late visit to England, without any special authority, drew upon his own responsibility from the Agent-General the large advance of £4,000. That advance has yet to be explained to Parliament, and no steps should have been taken to appoint the honorable gentleman to the office of Agent-General, until, at any rate, some satisfactory explanations had been offered to Parliament of his proceedings in connection with the matter. The more one looks into that subject, the more open to reprehension does it appear. I hold in my hand the Parliamentary proceedings of last year, and there are in connection with that advance one or two points to which the attention of the country has not yet been called, and to which I think it is necessary the country should be called before that appointment is finally decided upon. 1 find that that advance of £4,000 was made to Sir Juiius Vogel by way of imprest, at a time prior to his having accounted for a previous advance of £2,000. My honorable friend the Colonial Secretary says “No.” I refer my honorable friend to Parliamentary Paper B. 15. He will there see that Sir Johns Vogel received an imprest advance in November, 1874; that this imprest advance was only fully accounted for on 30th June, 1875 ; yet, in May, 1875 many weeks before that imprest advance had been accounted for—while seveial hundred pounds of that advance were in his hands—he drew a further sum of £4,000. In connection with that, there is another subject to which attention ought to be drawn when this question is under consideration. It is, that that last advance of £4,000 was made in May, 1875. Now, it was in May, 1875, that Sir Julius Vogel sent out to his colleagues by telegram Ids resignation of the position he then held as Premier of the colony. It was late in the month of May, 1875, that I heard of that circumstance in England. That resignation was not accepted until the Bth July, 1875 ; but it was in May, 1875, that that resignation was sent out. I believe, and I have warrant for that belief—and 1 shall be glad to find that the dates show there is no such warrant—that it was just after that resignation had been sent out that this sum of £4,000 was drawn by way of imprest. But even if it were not so, the fact remains the same, that at the very time he knew he was about to forward his resignation to the colony, and before the former imprest was expended, he drew this further sum of £4,000.