VOGEL, SIR JULIUS (1835-99) was born in London on 24 Feb 1835, the son of Albert Leopold Vogel and Phoebe, eldest daughter of Alexander Isaac, of Hatcham Grove, Surrey, and Wolsingham Park, Durham. As a child he was delicate and until the age of 13 he received his education at home. Then he spent three years (1846-49) at the University College school until the death of his parents (1849). Amongst his contemporaries were Sir Arthur Charles, August Prevost, Sir Edwin Durning Lawrence, Lord Romilly and Thomas Hood. He was put under the care of his grandfather, a West Indian and South American merchant, and in his office gained much experience. He is believed to have made one voyage to South America, and to have been for some time in a sharebroker's office in London.

The gold discoveries in Victoria caught Vogel's imagination, and to fit himself for a new life there he entered upon a course of study in chemistry and metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines in Jermyn Street (1851-52). Under Dr Percy he achieved noteworthy success, gaining proficiency in smelting and assaying. Thus equipped, he formed a partnership with A. S. Grant and they sailed for Melbourne, arriving towards the end of 1852. For about two years they were in business together in Flinders Lane, their principal client being the Bank of Australasia. Vogel was at one time tempted by the high price of flour to make a speculation in this commodity at £80 per ton, but an opportune clearance in the weather and improvement in the state of the roads depressed the price on the diggings, and he lost heavily. He decided to go himself to the goldfields and with Dr Gagen he opened a drug store in the new town of Maryborough. Finding time on his hands, he accepted an invitation to write for the Maryborough Advertiser, with considerable success and profit. When the Inglewood rush occurred he opened another store there, under the management of Mr. White, and to indulge his journalistic bent he established the Inglewood Advertiser, which soon had a good circulation. He also became editor (with a financial interest) of the Talbot Leader. Speculative, shrewd and sanguine, Vogel was at this time making a good deal of money both from the papers and from his association with various mines on the Back Creek, Tarnagulla and Inglewood fields. Being popular and liberal, he was unable to retain his wealth. Encouraged to enter politics, in which his views were moderate, he contested the Avoca seat (Aug 1861) but was severely defeated (Hon J.M. Grant, 2,305; B. G. Davies, 2,050; Vogel, 819). In that campaign he advocated constructing railways by means of grants of land. This disappointment prompted him to seek fresh fields, and he turned his attention to the new goldfields of Otago, where he arrived about Oct 1861.

Vogel was at once engaged by W. Lambert (q.v.) to write for The Colonist, a weekly paper which then shared the business of the province with the Otago Witness. Before he had been many months in the province he had acquired a share in the Witness and had persuaded his partner (W. H. Cutten) to publish the Otago Daily Times (15 Nov 1861), the first daily newspaper in New Zealand. This child of Vogel's lively imagination and sanguine temperament was the joint property of Vogel and Cutten, Vogel being editor of both weekly and daily and Farjeon (q.v.) manager. In spite of being burned out a month or two after its birth, the Otago Daily Times was a rapid success. Following a verdict for £500 damages given against the paper for libel in 1864, Cutten retired from the proprietary, making way for Farjeon. Early in 1866 a company took over the papers, retaining both Vogel and Farjeon.

Politics ran high at this time and Vogel did the financial interests of the papers an injury by his determined advocacy of the separation of the North and Middle Islands so as to relieve the latter of any responsibility for the costly Maori wars. Early in 1868 he was given notice of dismissal, which he countered with an offer to lease the paper at £1,000 a year. The shareholders rejected the proposal, and Vogel withdrew. In retaliation he started The Sun, a daily morning paper which for some weeks put up a brilliant opposition to the Otago Daily Times; but the call of national politics was now insistent. The Sun closed down in the middle of 1869, and Vogel left for Auckland, where early in 1870 he bought the Southern Cross. He was a brilliant journalist, a forceful and fluent writer, and during his stay of eight years in Otago his journals gave him a commanding position in provincial politics and a firm entry into the national sphere. He had been less than 18 months in control of the Otago Witness when he first offered himself for popular election. In an election in Apr 1863 for the representation of Dunedin City in the House of Representatives he was defeated by a staunch 'Old Identity' (Reynolds, 77; Vogel, 31; Cutten, 11). Two months later he contested another city vacancy and again suffered defeat at the hands of an old identity (Paterson, 105; Vogel, 72). But he was consoled by being elected to the Provincial Council for Waikouaiti (Vogel, 21; J. McGlashan, 16). On that occasion he was an avowed advocate of separation, but only after the existing crisis was over. Thus early also he advocated oversea mail services and an agency-general (which he was to further later in Colonial politics).

Vogel's star was now in the ascendant. In Sep he was elected to the General Assembly without opposition, for Dunedin and Suburbs North. Allying himself with John Hardy and others, he soon had a leading position in the Provincial Council; but his far-reaching and imaginative schemes were looked at askance by the staid Scots leaders of the province. Early in 1866 he carried a resolution advocating the reunion of Otago and Southland, which was to be almost achieved before he left the province. His main argument was that the landed estate of both provinces was in danger of being squandered in the ruinous competition for settlers. He was an advocate of communications of all sorts, and promoted steamship services, railways and telegraphs in the province. At the end of 1866 he was tempted to withdraw from provincial politics, but a party incident lured him on. He had in debate challenged A. J. Burns to resign and contest a seat with him. Shortly afterwards Vogel was defeated by Murison in a General Assembly election for Waikouaiti (Murison, 37; Vogel, 35; Thompson, 1), and he resigned his seat in the Provincial Council. About the same time Burns resigned his seat (Taieri) owing to lack of support at a public meeting. Vogel accepted an invitation to Taieri, and defeated Burns by 82 to 56. Burns meanwhile was elected to the House of Representatives for Caversham, while Vogel was returned for the Goldfields. He was also elected for a Dunedin Provincial seat in Feb 1867, and at the end of that year became head of the government, a position which he held until he left the province. In the early weeks of 1867, when Macandrew was elected Superintendent of the province, the General Government refused to delegate to him the powers of administration of the Otago goldfields. Vogel threw his whole weight into this fight as a question of the provinces against the General Government, and when it failed he maintained the demand for some degree of separation and a dissolution of the partnership between the provinces and the Colony which would leave the provinces in full control of their own resources. The vehemence of this claim by Vogel was often recalled when a few years later he was equally determined, if less open, in attacking the provinces themselves.

Vogel's advance in general politics was smooth and rapid but was distinguished by frequent changes of constituency. Elected unopposed for Dunedin Suburbs in 1863, he was returned unopposed again for Goldfields in the next parliament, after having been defeated for Waikouaiti. At first his attitude in Parliament was strongly coloured by his provincial associations; but his schemes and dreams were much wider than the borders of the province. The adventurous vein in his character was strongly in evidence in the scheme which he proposed to the Stafford ministry in 1865 for disposing of the magnificent native lands confiscated in the war. He suggested a gigantic lottery in which 2,000,000 tickets should be sold at one pound each. Free passages from Great Britain were to be provided for the lucky ticket-holders (175 cabin and 18,870 steerage), and single immigrants were to show themselves possessed of merely £1 on landing in the colony. They were to be well provided for; model settlements would be established; and the Government would guarantee protection against any ill-disposed natives. Vogel anticipated a great increase of population and that vast sums of money would be available for public works. Stafford submitted the proposal without enthusiasm to the provinces. Auckland and Wellington said laconically that they had no lands available; Taranaki did not care for the speculative element. The embarrassed Weld Government by its financial proposals in 1865 changed Vogel's attitude from lukewarmness to violent hostility; but he was inhibited by his fight on behalf of provincial rights from throwing in his lot with Stafford. During the four years of Fox's absence from New Zealand (to 1869) Vogel became the virtual leader of the opposition, scoring heavily against Stafford in debates on native affairs and provincial rights. It was no surprise, therefore, when Fox returned to the Colony, that he should want Vogel as his Treasurer and that Vogel should accept the opportunity to retire gracefully from provincial politics. Fox's views on the native question were strongly philo-Maori and Vogel, with the practical impatience of the South Islander, considered that the best way to end the war and subjugate or pacify the natives was not by endless military operations involving vast debt, but by the vigorous promotion of roads, railways, telegraphs and immigration as a means of settling the country. He accordingly accepted office with Fox and, by choice, took the portfolios of Colonial Treasurer, Postmaster-general and Commissioner of Customs. In the ensuing session (28 Jun 1870) Vogel expounded his historic scheme of public works and immigration. It was no new vision with him. What he proposed was to borrow £10,000,000 for expenditure over a period of 10 years in the construction of roads, railways and telegraphs and in bringing in immigrants, who would obtain sections as the lands were opened up. He proposed finding the money partly by loans, partly by guarantee, and partly by land grants. It was hoped that in 10 years there would be a trunk line of railway from end to end of each island. The whole scheme was not adopted. Provincial agitations insisted on branch lines being built before the trunk system was completed, and the special difficulties of construction in the North Island held up the work there. Immediately after the session Featherston and Bell were sent to England to enlist the help of the Imperial Government in raising the necessary money. They obtained a guarantee for the first million, to be spent over a period of five years. Encouraged by this report, the Government initiated the minor scheme, costing £4,000,000, of which half was to be expended on railways.

At the end of the year (1870) Vogel himself left New Zealand on an extended tour. In the United States he negotiated for the establishment of the San Francisco mail service, but was unable to persuade the American Government to subsidise it. Pursuing the same subject in Great Britain, he failed to carry his project of penny postage or to induce the British Government to annex Samoa as a port of call, a step which was taken by America a few years later in the lease of Pago Pago. In London Vogel succeeded in raising loans amounting to £1,200,000, and in promoting the idea of inscribing the stock of the colonies in preference to the existing method of raising money by debentures. In this connection he warned the New Zealand Government that there was no hope of obtaining this concession for the colonies 'so long as there exists - as there does at present - grave doubt as to the permanence of the connection between the colonies and the Mother Country.' In fact, there was no prospect 'until it is finally understood that the colonies are to be regarded as indissolubly parts of the Empire.' Vogel also asked the assent of the Imperial Government to the act passed in New Zealand in 1870 with a view to the conclusion of reciprocity agreements between the various Australian colonies. The Australian colonies were all forbidden by their constitutions to make differential tariffs; but Vogel's arguments were not unavailing. A year or two later (in 1873) the Imperial Parliament passed an act to make possible this measure of empire consolidation. Vogel could arouse no enthusiasm over the proposed submarine cable between Australia and New Zealand. He pushed the interests of New Zealand coal and flax, and suggested thus early that the Colony should appoint official graders of hemp at each of the ports. But the most important part of his mission in Britain was an agreement with the engineering firm of John Brogden and Sons, who had already been negotiating with the province of Nelson, to send a preliminary party to New Zealand to study the proposed railway contracts. He definitely engaged to grant them contracts amounting to £1,000,000, in consideration of which they were to introduce not less than 40,000 immigrant labourers. Vogel was satisfied from his discussions in England that it would not be possible to finance the railway construction entirely through land grants. A minor achievement was his arrangement with the Hon W. Feilding to select immigrants with means to settle a block of land in the Rangitikei district. Vogel returned to New Zealand in Aug 1871. (C.M.G.)

In the meantime there had been a general election, and he was now member for Auckland City East. He was made plainly aware at a public meeting in Dunedin before his departure how little the people of Otago liked his politics. Accordingly, having acquired an interest in the Southern Cross and the Weekly News in Auckland, he turned his attention in that direction, and was elected in his absence. He was soon to learn that the parliament which he met on his return was not willing to accept without demur all his commitments. Fox himself shared the general uneasiness, and in the ensuing session the Government suffered a series of reverses, generally initiated by Stafford, on its immigration and public works policy. The Government's resignation (10 Sep 1872) gave Fox the opportunity he was seeking to retire and enjoy more personal freedom than he had known for 30 years. Stafford being unable to carry on, Vogel was called to form a new Government. Selecting the best talent that was available, he took office in Oct with Hall, McLean, Ormond, O'Rorke, Bathgate and E. Richardson. For reasons of his own he chose as the titular leader of the Government the Hon. G. M. Waterhouse (q.v.), who was scarcely known in New Zealand politics, and who was, moreover, in the Legislative Council. It was soon only too clear to the country, and to Waterhouse himself, that he was a leader without real authority. He and Vogel were men of such widely different temperaments that they could not possibly agree and their policies could not harmonise. When matters came to a head Vogel was again out of New Zealand negotiating with the Australian colonies on the cable question. Waterhouse insisted on resigning the premiership, and once more the unselfish Fox came from his retirement to hold office as Premier until Vogel returned. Vogel at once resumed the leadership, but was unable owing to illness to be in his place when Parliament met; and Donald McLean acted for him. Without a division the House adopted the agreement with Queensland and New South Wales to subsidise the English mail service by guaranteeing a loan of £1,000,000 for 35 years; and the joint cable agreement was also approved. The Vogel policy was now in full swing. Railways were creeping forward in all parts of the country. In 1873 31,774 immigrants reached New Zealand; in 1874 18,324. Fully appreciating the power of the press, Vogel transferred the Southern Cross to a company, which lost £8,000 in four years before selling out to the New Zealand Herald (1876). He had meanwhile acquired an interest in the New Zealand Times, which on 1 Jan 1874 incorporated the old-established Wellington Independent. The session of 1874 was noteworthy for the rejection, mainly through provincial prejudice, of the far-seeing forests bill, the adoption of which would have saved the country, in the next generation or two, millions of money. Vogel was already suspected of the design of abolishing the provincial system; and not without reason, for on 13 Aug, at the instigation of Stafford, he brought forward resolutions to that end, favouring abolition of the North Island provinces and instructing the Government to consider the matter during the recess. The debate was marked by the dramatic rebuke and resignation of O'Rorke (13 Aug 1874) and terminated in the rejection of all amendments by a two-to-one majority. The session over, Vogel wished again to visit London and proposed resigning in favour of Stafford, the arch-abolitionist; but Stafford insisted that it was no time to leave the Colony. Accordingly Atkinson was appointed to the ministry (10 Sep 1874) nominally as Secretary for Lands; and Vogel sailed (with T. Russell) on a new financial expedition to London. Calling first at Australia to settle various matters with New South Wales and Queensland and to get an understanding regarding the joint guarantee of the cable, he had then to arrange in Great Britain for its construction and to make a thorough investigation of the Agent-general's office, then under the control of Featherston. The period of more than a year that Vogel spent in England on this occasion sealed his fate as a political leader in New Zealand. Atkinson was mainly responsible for the leadership of the party, not merely from the great ability with which he mastered the intricacies of finance, but also from the fact that Pollen was in the upper chamber and removed from the vital hurly-burly of politics. With the session of 1875 approaching Vogel informed the Government that he would not be able to return until it was over, and the ministry accepted his suggestion that they should appoint another leader. Pollen accordingly became Premier (6 Jul 1875). Vogel, though he was at the other end of the world, continued nominally to hold his two portfolios. Atkinson as Colonial Treasurer was the virtual leader of the Government, and thus served a useful apprenticeship for his own hard years of office. Early in the year (Mar 1875) Sir George Grey had entered politics for the City of Auckland with the express purpose of defending the last ditch for provincialism. That cause could not be saved. Atkinson brought forward a series of resolutions which summarily abolished the provincial system. Grey could not resist them. By majorities of 55 to 20 in the lower house and 23 to 4 in the upper, the decision went against him. But from a party point of view the struggle was not altogether unavailing, for he gathered round him a strong body of Liberals who formed the foundation of the victories of the nineties.

Vogel, having been promoted K.C.M.G., returned to New Zealand in Feb 1876. While he was on the water a general election was held. He had taken the hint from an unfriendly meeting at Auckland late in 1874 to seek another home in the next parliament. The fascination he exercised over the constituencies was again in evidence. In his absence supporters nominated him in three different electorates. On 7 Jan he was elected for Wanganui (Bryce, 380; Vogel, 361; Watt, 191; Pharazyn, 36). At Thames, a few days later, he was defeated by his most dangerous antagonist (Grey, 984; William Rowe, 862; Vogel, 685). He was nominated also for Clutha but, having already gained a seat, did not go to the poll. Pollen retired when he landed, and five days later Vogel resumed the Premiership, and nominally the Treasury, though in reality Atkinson remained in charge of finance. It was soon evident that Vogel's days were numbered. At an early stage he had to face an attack on the transactions of his travelling companion, Russell. A grant of lands in the Piako district to Whitaker and Russell was impugned, and the Government suffered defeat by 5 votes. Vogel insisted on the deal being completed, and his persuasive arguments got a favourable decision by 51 votes to 49. Then his own extravagant travelling allowances came under criticism. His mind was on the wider life in London and Europe and the allurements of the financial world, and he was not sorry to resign (Sep 1876) in order to accept the post in London which had been rendered vacant by Featherston's death. Atkinson took office as Premier and appointed Vogel Agent-general, in the first instance for one year. Vogel had not been long in London when he intimated to the Government that it would suit him to hold the office permanently, and he asked permission to accept directorates of public companies. In 1877 he was offered the choice of the Agency-general or the agency for the inscription of New Zealand stock. He wished to accept the latter if the terms were sufficiently attractive, but the matter was not finalised. During the rest of his term in London Vogel was more or less involved in squabbles with the Government. His acceptance of a seat on the board of the New Zealand Agricultural Co. was objected to by both Grey and Hall, and finally he was called upon to choose between that and the Agency-general. He chose to give up the official post (Oct 1880), and four months later Bell arrived and assumed office. Vogel's political associations in England had also been distasteful to the Government, especially to Grey; and he was warmly censured in 1880 when he persisted in his candidature for Penryn and Falmouth in the Conservative interest as a supporter of Beaconsfield. The attempt was unsuccessful (D. J. Jenkins, Liberal, 1,176; R. B. Brett, Liberal, 1,071; Vogel, Conservative, 882; Mayne, Conservative, 765) and is said to have cost Vogel £5,000.

Vogel's next visit to New Zealand, in Dec 1882, was as the representative of the Electric Lighting Co. In a journey northward from the Bluff he was able to estimate the political position and his own chance of re-entering the arena. Again in 1883 he was in New Zealand on behalf of the Australian Electric Light, Power and Storage Co. From his point of view, the political situation was now more hopeful. New Zealand was in a depression from which all the devices of successive governments seemed unable to extricate it. He declared that he had no intention of staying more than a few months and would only agree to re-enter politics in the belief - which many New Zealanders shared - that he could propose remedies for troubles that had baffled others. He accepted a most flattering invitation to stand for the East Coast (Gisborne) seat, but withdrew when several local candidates refused to stand down. Declining an invitation from Stanmore, he accepted Ashburton, and had actually addressed the electors when the dissolution opened a new field of opportunities. Putting aside New Plymouth and Te Aro, Vogel stood for Christchurch North, where he defeated John Crewes by 980 to 223 (26 Jul 1884). In the new Parliament Vogel was actually the leader of the largest individual party. Out of 91 members 33 were pledged to support him; Atkinson had 2 followers; 15 were pledged to the leadership of Montgomery and 4 to Grey; while 7 were independents definitely opposed to Atkinson. Montgomery, the leader of the strongest Liberal group, offered his support to Vogel, and on 16 Aug the Stout-Vogel Government took office. Stout was Premier and Vogel Treasurer and the real leader of the Government, which included also Macandrew, Ballance and Montgomery. The territorial composition of the ministry (in which Canterbury had three members and Auckland only one), was a challenge to the old provincial spirit; and on purely provincial grounds the ministry was defeated on the address-in-reply. With Atkinson again in office for a week, Vogel reshuffled his material, and Montgomery once more sacrificed his own interest to enable Stout to resume office (on 3 Sep). Once more Stout was the titular Premier, but the hopeful country looked to his Treasurer to produce the miracle of finance which alone could solve its problems. Progressive ill-health, evidenced in deafness and drowsiness, influenced Vogel in surrendering the leadership to the brilliant young barrister, but his own brain he believed was still imaginative and venturesome enough to produce schemes which would relieve the country's distress. The stern facts of an empty treasury did not, however, yield so readily, and Vogel found himself compelled to ask for higher taxation. The Government steadily lost ground during the next three years. At the general election in 1887 Stout lost his seat. Vogel, for the first time in his political career, was returned again for the same constituency, defeating Roberts by 748 votes to 256 (26 Sep 1887).

The Government had no alternative but to resign, and Atkinson took office again (8 Oct). Vogel had a fairly strong following, but his prospect was bleak in the extreme. Suffering from progressive disorders, he attended one more session and then yielded to his old craving and returned to London. He took a house at Hillersdon, East Molesey, where he devoted himself to literature and, when opportunity offered, to business. Early in 1889 he resigned his seat in the New Zealand Parliament, and in that year he published his only novel, Anno Domini 2000; or Woman's Destiny, in which he adumbrated the use of aviation for purposes of travel. He contributed much to magazines and reviews at different times, and published several pamphlets during his earlier visits to London, notably two on Empire relations and the South Sea Islands. He also edited in 1875 the well-known Official Handbook of New Zealand. As a journalist he was trenchant and effective; the best of his speeches, as preserved in Hansard and the press, were written beforehand. In 1863 the Otago Daily Times published serially Mrs Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret. Vogel produced a dramatised version which was played for some weeks by amateurs at the Princess Theatre in Dunedin, the last performance being a benefit for the (as yet anonymous) playwright.

Vogel was in straitened circumstances for many years. In 1885 and 1892 he petitioned Parliament for compensation in respect of his services as financial agent, and in 1890 he filed a petition of right, but without success. During the last three years of his life he was in receipt of a salary of £300 a year as financial adviser to the Government. When he died (12 Mar 1899) his widow received a grant of £1,500. Lady Vogel, whom he married in Mar 1867, was Mary, eldest daughter of W. H. Clayton (q.v.), Colonial Architect. Of their family the eldest son, Harry BENJAMIN (born 1868) practised for some years as a solicitor in Wellington, where he contested a parliamentary election in 1893 and served on the City Council (1891-94). Returning to London he became a prominent journalist and novelist.

As a statesman Vogel had a dazzling record of achievement. In Fox's administration in 1869 he got his state life insurance proposal approved. This and the Torrens land transfer system were adopted in 1870, and in 1872, on the suggestion (it is believed) of E. C. J. Stevens, he passed an act creating the Public Trust office. He favoured woman franchise in 1887, but it was not enacted until 1893. Vogel's public works policy had economic and social consequences far beyond his own sanguine dreams, though possibly of a less desirable sort. The intensity of the subsequent depression was undoubtedly increased by the reckless pace at which Vogel had moved in the seventies and the careless selection of immigrants. It is generally admitted that the average type of men and women introduced in the seventies was not comparable with those of the forties and fifties, when tests of character and means were rigidly applied. In the realm of finance Vogel was audacious, speculative and sanguine. Not only did he persuade the London money market to grant New Zealand huge loans, but he prevailed upon the Imperial Government to pass legislation to authorise the inscribing of certain colonial stocks. When the bill was first presented to the House of Commons the Irish question was acute and the party obstructed everything. Learning what the obstacle was, Vogel personally interviewed Parnell and Biggar and convinced them that the interests of Ireland would not suffer if they extended this consideration to the colonies. The colonial stock bill accordingly came into law in the following session (Aug 1877). Communications of all kinds always interested Vogel. Even in the small field of Otago province he arranged oversea mails and ports of call and fostered railway and telegraph construction. The New Zealand Shipping Co. (1873) and the Union Steam Ship Co. (1875) came into existence while he was in office. Practically all through he had control of the customs, post office and telegraphs, and he lost no opportunity of furthering Empire lines of communication. The San Francisco mail service and the submarine telegraph line between Australia and New Zealand were two of his achievements, involving intricate negotiations with several Australian Colonies, the United States and Great Britain. In the earliest discussions of the Pacific cable in 1887 Vogel proposed joint ownership by the Mother Country and the Colonies. Colonial reciprocity he proposed in his earliest provincial speeches, and on his first visit to England (1871) he tried to induce the Government to legislate enabling this to be achieved. New Zealand had already passed an act, but the Australian colonies were prohibited by their constitutions from making differential tariffs and it was not until 1873 that the Imperial Parliament amended this (36-37 Vic. c. 22). Empire defence Vogel took cognisance of in his first visit to England, and as a result the valuable suggestions of Sir William Jervois were forthcoming. Vogel's views on annexation in the Pacific were far in advance of his time. Taking up the mantle of Grey, he endeavoured to open the eyes of Downing street to the troubles that might follow if foreign powers were permitted to annex the groups in the western Pacific. In particular he urged that Samoa should be taken possession of as a port of call for the San Francisco mail service. The co-operation of certain Australian colonies in this demand being ineffective, Vogel endeavoured to gain his ends by floating a trading company similar to the German companies already active in the Pacific. New Zealand actually offered to administer Fiji if it were annexed, but when in 1874 the Colonial Office demanded that all of the colonies that wanted annexation should contribute towards the £4,000 a year that it would cost, Vogel refused point blank to contribute unless New Zealand had a say in the administration. In his celebrated memorandum of 5 Apr 1876 he protested that the British policy in the Pacific appeared to be one of disintegrating the Empire; and he freely committed New Zealand to portion of the cost of annexations. The outcome of this agitation was the extension of the powers of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. In 1880 Vogel again warned the British government of German activities in the Pacific to which the colonies could not remain indifferent. In Nov 1884 the New Zealand Parliament agreed to pay a share of the cost of governing New Guinea, and demanded that both Tonga and Samoa be secured to New Zealand. These activities of the British colonies moved Germany to immediate steps culminating in the annexations in New Guinea. Vogel then demanded angrily to be allowed to annex Samoa, and Derby had the greatest difficulty in restraining him. The annexation of the Kermadec islands in 1887 seems to have been the main outcome in the way of extending New Zealand's boundaries.

Gisborne describes Vogel as being 'bold, sanguine and hasty, determined, self-willed and often rash; overfond of personal power and popular adulation, and apt to become a dictator.' He was undoubtedly impatient of restraint, but was willing at all times to surrender the shadow of power for the substance. Though he was considerate towards friends, and often conciliated enemies by kindness, he had not the disposition for perfect team work. It was significant of his temperament that he never represented one constituency twice until the end of his career. He saw his goal afar off but he scented trouble afar also and, with the instinct of his race, he evaded it gracefully. He loved spending freely both his own and the country's money, and was generally considered to be something of a gambler in the public funds, as he was in his own pastimes. But he had many of the qualities of the statesman. Gisborne remarks, especially his restless energy, great self-confidence, quick perception, persistent tenacity, dialectical power, unbounded fertility of resource, constructiveness, close practical observation of men and things, and instinctive knowledge of figures. In fact he was 'the best all-round leader on both sides of the House.' His personal courage bore him up under grave suffering and even poverty and against political intrigue and combinations.

Personal information from J. L. F. Vogel; N.Z. Times, 19 Oct 1876 (p); Otago P.C. Proc.; N.Z.P.D., pass; Gisborne (p); Saunders (p); Hocken, Otago; Reeves; Condliffe; Rusden; E. Wakefield, Stafford; Sylvia Masterman, Origins of International Rivalry in Samoa; British Empire Review, Apr 1935; Scholefield, N.Z. Evol. and Pacific.

Reference: Volume 2, page 213

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