Overview
Although the politician and journalist Julius Vogel was bold and imaginative, he was also known for rashness.
He was born in London to Albert Vogel and Phoebe Isaac. His parents separated when he was six, and Julius was brought up by his mother who was from a wealthy Jewish family. Vogel went to school until he was fifteen and then worked in his grandfather’s merchant business. In 1852, he emigrated to Melbourne.
In the new gold-mining town of Maryborough, he opened a drugstore. However, journalism had caught his interest and, after a brief stint as a reporter, he was asked to edit the Dunolly Advertiser. Later, he established his own paper - the Inglewood and Sandy Creek Advertiser. He had strong political views, and used his editorials to advocate parliamentary reform.
By 1861, Victoria was in a recession. Vogel lost his editing job, and was forced to sell the Inglewood and Sandy Creek Advertiser. He stood for election to the Victorian General Assembly, but as an independent free trader he didn’t stand a chance.
In 1861, he followed the goldrush to Otago, and in partnership with William Cutten, established the Otago Daily Times.
After several attempts in 1863 to gain a seat in the New Zealand parliament, he won Dunedin North. He was already becoming known for his far-sighted, large-scale plans. For example, he was in favour of the separation of the North and South Islands, to relieve the South Island of debts caused by the New Zealand Wars.
Although the Otago Daily Times was doing well, Vogel was dismissed by the paper’s shareholders in 1868. They considered him a loose cannon – concerned more with his own political agenda than profit. Vogel established another newspaper in Dunedin, but abandoned it shortly afterwards to concentrate solely on politics.
In 1867, Vogel married Mary Clayton, daughter of his neighbour. Mary was to influence his views greatly. It’s likely that it was she who inspired him to introduce a Woman’s Suffrage Bill to parliament in 1887.
In June 1869, Vogel was appointed Colonial Treasurer, Commissioner of Customs and Postmaster-General under Prime Minister William Fox. New Zealand’s economy was in bad shape, and Vogel was determined to turn it round with a daring expansionist policy. In 1870, he announced what today could be thought of as New Zealand’s first ‘Think Big’ scheme: he raised ten million pounds on the British money market for better roads, railways, bridges and telegraph lines. He planned to purchase more Maori land for European settlement, and to bring thousands of assisted migrants to the country to fill all the new jobs his scheme would create.
The policy was popular at first, but by 1872 it hadn’t shown results, and Fox’s government was defeated. However, after the third administration of Edward Stafford, which lasted less than a month, Vogel returned to office. George Waterhouse was now prime minister, but Vogel was, without doubt, the country’s real leader.
For most of his term, Vogel was considered a charismatic, skilful politician, despite his recklessness. His popularity declined after a time, partly due to accusations of extravagance, and a drop in export prices. He resigned in 1876 and moved to London to become New Zealand’s Agent-General. He stayed in that post for four years.
In 1884, he stood for re-election to the New Zealand parliament. His lack of popularity in 1876 was forgotten, and he was remembered only for the period of prosperity which New Zealand had enjoyed while he held office. He was elected as the member for Christchurch North.
The Prime Minister at the time was Robert Stout, but Vogel was once more the power behind the throne. It was not a successful ministry, despite Vogel’s attempts to invigorate the economy with projects such as the 1885 New Zealand Industrial Exhibition. Eventually disillusioned, Vogel resigned his parliamentary seat in 1888, settled back in London, and cut his ties with New Zealand.
In the early 1890s, suffering from severe gout, he retired to Surrey with his wife. Once more, he began to write. He penned a novel called Anno domini 2000; or, woman’s destiny. It was set in a futuristic world where poverty no longer existed and women held all the top government positions. The book was published in London in 1889, but sold badly. Vogel had more success as a journalist, and many of his articles appeared in leading British periodicals.
He died in Surrey on 12 March 1899.
References
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-209537.html
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).