= Julius_Vogel =

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= Julius_Vogel =
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Introduction
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Sir Julius Vogel (24 February 1835 - 12 March 1899) was the eighth
premier of New Zealand. His administration is best remembered for the
issuing of bonds to fund railway construction and other public works.
He was the first Jewish prime minister of New Zealand. Historian
Warwick R. Armstrong assesses Vogel's strengths and weaknesses:

Early life
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Born in London, Vogel received his early education at University
College School in University College, Gower St London. He later
studied chemistry and metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines (later
part of Imperial College London). He emigrated to Victoria, Australia
in 1852, being editor of several newspapers on the goldfields,
including the 'Inglewood' 'Advertiser' and the 'Maryborough and
Dunolly Advertiser'. After an unsuccessful attempt to enter the
Victorian Parliament in the Avoca district in August 1861 (he lost to
James Macpherson Grant and Benjamin George Davies), he moved to Otago
in October 1861, where he became a journalist for the 'Otago Witness'.
In November 1861, he founded the 'Otago Daily Times' and became its
first editor. In 1863 James Grant was charged with criminal libel
against Vogel in an election pamphlet but was found not guilty by a
jury.

On 19 March 1867, Vogel got married in Dunedin to his neighbour Mary
"Polly" Clayton, the daughter of architect William Henry Clayton. They
had three sons and one daughter.

Political career
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Vogel first became involved in politics in 1862, winning election to
the provincial council of Otago. Four years later became the head of
the provincial government, a post which he held until 1869.

Member of Parliament
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In 1863 he was unsuccessful in the for . Later in an he was elected
a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the Dunedin
and Suburbs North electorate.

In the 1866 election, he was defeated by William Murison in the
electorate on Wednesday, 28 February. It is unclear why Vogel stood in
Waikouaiti as two days earlier, he had been returned unopposed at the
nomination for the Goldfields electorate. On retiring from the
provincial government in 1869, he joined the William Fox ministry as
colonial treasurer, afterward holding the posts of postmaster-general,
commissioner of customs, and telegraph commissioner at various times.

In 1870, as Colonial Treasurer he introduced his "grand go-ahead
policy" or 'great Public Works policy' to revitalise and develop the
country by borrowing overseas to build railways, roads and telegraph
lines and to attract immigrants.

The Fox ministry having been forced to resign, Vogel carried a vote of
no confidence in their successors, and in October 1872, returned to
power as leader in the Lower House, colonial treasurer and
postmaster-general. He represented several electorates throughout the
colony: Dunedin and Suburbs North 1863-1866, Goldfields in Otago
1866-1870, Auckland East 1871-1875, Wanganui 1876 (resigned) and
Christchurch North 1884-1889 (resigned).

Vogel successfully contested the 1884 election in Christchurch North
against John Crewes.

Vogel was the first Member of Parliament to be named in New Zealand.
He was named on 15 November 1887 by the Speaker of the House Maurice
O'Rorke for saying that his fellow Member Robert Thompson was 'want of
manners' in a debate about Vogel's use of constabulary for household
purposes - a charge he denied.

Premier of New Zealand
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Vogel was premier from 1873 to 1875 and again in 1876. From 1876 to
1881, he was agent-general for New Zealand in London, and, in 1884, he
was again a member of the government of the colony. During his
political career, Vogel worked generally successfully for
reconciliation with the Māori people. In 1887, he introduced the first
women's suffrage Bill to Parliament, but suffrage was not granted
until 1893. He was knighted in 1875. He finally gave up the colonial
office in 1887; from which date he lived in England and was the
Agent-General for New Zealand.

Vogel is best remembered for his "Great Public Works" scheme of the
1870s. Before 1870, New Zealand was a country largely dominated by
provincial interests and pork-barrel politics. After Vogel, as
colonial treasurer, proposed borrowing the massive sum of 10 million
pounds, New Zealand developed a significant infrastructure of roads,
railways and communication, all administered by central government.

Vogel is also noteworthy as one of the few practising Jewish prime
ministers outside Israel. Since Vogel, two other New Zealanders of
Jewish descent have held the premiership: Francis Bell, an Anglican
who briefly became prime minister in May 1925; and John Key, New
Zealand's prime minister between 2008 and 2016 who was not religious
despite attending synagogue as a child on occasion. Benjamin Disraeli,
of Jewish descent but Anglican, was Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom contemporaneously to Vogel's premiership.

Life after politics
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Vogel has a reputation as the first New Zealander to write a
science-fiction novel: 'Anno Domini 2000, or, Woman's Destiny',
published in 1889. It anticipated a utopian world where women held
many positions of authority. New Zealand went on to become the first
country to give women the vote, and, from 1997 to 2008, continuously
had a female Prime Minister, while for a short period (2005-2006)
women simultaneously held all five highest government positions
(Monarch, Governor-General, Prime Minister, Speaker of the House and
Chief Justice).

In honour of this book, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for New Zealand
speculative fiction take their name from him.
"Curiosities: Anno Domini 2000; or Woman's Destiny by Julius Vogel" by
Lucy Sussex, Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 2008, page 162.

He died in London, having retired there in 1887 after electoral
defeat. He had been an invalid for several years.

On his death at East Molesey in 1899, Vogel was interred in Willesden
Jewish Cemetery in London.

Namesakes
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Several things bear his name today:

* The Sir Julius Vogel Awards for science fiction writing.
* Suburbs named Vogeltown in Wellington and New Plymouth.
* Vogel House, the former official residence of New Zealand Prime
Ministers for most of the 20th century.
* Vogel Building in Wellington built for the Ministry of Works, now
housing much of the Ministry of Justice. This building has been
renamed the Justice Centre as of July 2013.
* Various streets throughout the country named Vogel Street, such as
the one in his former constituency of Dunedin.

See also
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* New Zealand literature

Further reading
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* Burdon, Randal M. 'Life and Times of Sir Julius Vogel'
(Christchurch, 1948)

External links
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*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080710070232/http://www.primeminister.govt.nz/oldpms/1873vogel.html
Prime Minister's Office biography] (archived)
*[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=100&letter=V
Biographic entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia]
*[http://www.beth-el.org.nz/index.php/community/history History of
Jews in New Zealand - Wellington Jewish Community Website]
*Sir Julius Vogel: 'Anno Domini 2000 or a Woman's Destiny': New
Zealand Electronic Text Centre.
[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-AnnVoge.html Full text
freely available online]
*
*

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Vogel