Life and Recollections of a New Zealand Colonist. Vol. III. [NZ sections only]

C. R. (Charles Rooking) Carter

First published by Printed by R. Madley in 1875

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services.

Epub © 2013 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-1-927289-04-4

[TITLE PAGES]

Note, – My readers will observe that in the breadth and length of the pages of type, and also in the mode of illustrating this volume, it is different to its predecessors. This arises from its having been found necessary to increase tbe space occupied by the printing) in order that large engravings might be introduced with better effect, not only in this volume, but in another work which is being published by me contemporaneously with this one.

London, October, 1875.

THE RESIDENCE OF NAPOLEON III. CHISELHURST, KENT.
In which he lived and died in Exile. The wing on the left hand is where his remains laid in state to be viewed by the public.

Life and Recollections
OF A
NEW ZEALAND COLONIST,

(WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,)

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.

London:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,
1875.
[Copyright Reserved].

[Page iv is blank]

[CONTENTS]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Preliminary Remarks – A Reform Demonstration and Riot – "Times" Printing Press – London to Ostend – Bruges – Working Classes in Belgium – Brussels – Colonne du Congress – National Fete – Belgian Houses of Parliament – Hotel de Ville – Manneken Fountain.... p. 1 to 12.

CHAPTER II.

Brussels to Waterloo – Battle-field of Waterloo – Commemorative Monuments – Chateau of Hougoumont – Brussels to Aix-la-Chapelle – The Grand Cathedral, or Munster Kirche – The Town Hall – Hot Springs – Cologne – Incident at an Hotel – The Rhine – The Cathedral.......... p. 13 to 21.

CHAPTER III.

Crossing the Rhine at Konigswinter – Rhine Hotel Waiters – The Seven Mountains – Scenery on the Rhine – Its Villages and Towers – Ruins of Towers and Castles on the Hills – Rafts and Steamers on the River – More Ruins and beautiful Scenery – We arrive at Coblenz – A Visit to the Castle of Stolzenfels – Mayence. ......... p. 22 to 33.

CHAPTER IV.

A Steamboat Trip down the Rhine from Mayence to Coblenz......... p. 34 to 43.

CHAPTER V.

Frankfort – The Cathedral – The Town Hall and Judengasse – Heidelberg – The Castle of Heidelberg – Baden-Baden – A Conversation House – Gambling Tables – Strasbourg and its Cathedral – We Return to London via, Paris – The Nelson Monument – A Peaceable Reform Demonstration and Procession.......... p. 44 to 57.

CHAPTER VI.

Oxfordian Reflections – Punctuality the Soul of Business – The Greatest of French Exhibitions – Its Appearance at a distance – The Grand Entrance – Avenue d'Europe – A Visit to various Countries and Termination of my Travels in the Exhibition Park – The Horticultural Gardens – Island of Bilancour and its Exhibition........... p. 58 to 73.

CHAPTER VII.

The Exhibition Building outside – A Walk round the Outer Gallery of Eating and Drinking – Inside the Exhibition Building – Colonial Courts – The Originators of Exhibitions – The Visit of a King and an Emperor to Paris – Two Ladies Lost – Attempted Assassination – Paris during the year 1867.......... p. 74 to 91.

CHAPTER VIII.

Personal matters hasten my departure to New Zealand – G. R. Stephenson's Letter – Unpropitious start from Southampton – On board the Atrato – Arrival at St. Thomas – Its Characteristics – Passage from St. Thomas to Colon........ p. 92 to 99.

CHAPTER IX.

Colon – A Railway from Ocean to Ocean – The Journey from Colon to Panama – A few words about the City of Panama – Departure from Panama and arrival at the Island of Pitcairn – Some Account of Pitcairn and its Inhabitants – We Leave and Arrive at Rapa – Voyage from there to Cook's Straits – A Disaster Avoided and Wellington Harbour Reached.......... p. 100 to 116,

CHAPTER X.

My Proceedings in the Wairarapa – Meeting at Greytown – Observations on my position as Trustee – Remarks on Education – Public Meeting at Masterton.......... p. 117 to 123.

CHAPTER XI.

An Historical Sketch of New Zealand Loans from the year 189S to 1874 – a period of twenty-one years.......... p. 124 to 153.

CHAPTER XII.

Loan Consolidation – Bank of New Zealand and the Auckland Loan – Ditto and an Otago Loan – A Colonial Guarantee and its effects – An Altercation – Mr. W. Fitzherbert leaves for England as Loan Agent – Extracts from his letters to me....... p. 154 to 162.

CHAPTER XIII.

A Trial in the Supreme Court and its Results – The Slip Question – My Services in England, before the Provincial Council – A Vote Proposed and how it was dealt with.......... p. 163 to 167.

CHAPTER XIV.

Governor Bowen – A Levee and One Dress Coat – The Reception Committee to receive the Duke of Edinburgh – How it ends – Dr. Featherstone's illness – Farewell Dinner to Sir George Grey – Private affairs oblige me to make a change....... p. 168 to 173.

CHAPTER XV.

Departure from Wellington – Calling at Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, The Bluff, and Arrival at Melbourne – Leave Sandridge Pier – In Bass's Straits – Off the Island of Rodondo – The Bounty Islands – Cape Horn – St. Paul's Rocks – Arrival in the English Channel....... p. 175 to 184.

CHAPTER XVI.

A Meeting of Colonists at a Railway Hotel – What they said and did – I find myself one of a deputation to a great man – Advantages of position – Arrival of Dr. Featherston in London – His negotiation with Lord Granville – Departure of Troops from New Zealand – The Two Commissioners – Difficulties of Dr. Featherston in securing a guarantee to a large loan – Charles Dickens and his readings........... p. 185 to 197.

CHAPTER XVII.

Reminiscences of Old English Places of Worship, &c., which I have seen – Canterbury Cathedral – Winchester Cathedral – Lichfield Cathedral – Lincoln Cathedral – King's College Chapel – Portland Breakwater – Salisbury Cathedral.......... p. 198 to 212.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Stonehenge......... p. 213 to 225.

CHAPTER XIX.

Dr. Featherston – My introduction to official life – Agricultural laborers and Joseph Arch – In search of emigrants – Complaints about it – The Doctor's illness – New Zealand affairs and Mr. Vogel: his Knighthood, and Polynesian Scheme – Insectivorous birds to Wellington – Provisions to Paris........ p. 226 to 240.

CHAPTER XX.

The Royal Family – Thanksgiving Day – The Crowd in the Strand – A Royal Procession – St. Paul's – Temple Bar – Adventures of a Cocked Hat......... p. 241 to 251.

CHAPTER XXI.

A Dust Yard – How some people live by nothing being wasted in London: a contrast to Chapter XX....... p. 252 to 254.

CHAPTER XXII.

Hanover – Hamburg – The Alster Basin – Berlin – The Unter den Linden – Castle of Babelsberg and the King of Prussia – A surprise.......... p. 255 to 265.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Introductory matter, beginning with dangers of the streets of London – An Eastern Monarch in the Metropolis – A Romantic country – The Spas of England......... p. 266 to 272.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Buxton – The Spas of Buxton – The Serpentine Walks – Poole's Cavern – The Road to Castleton – The Blue-John Mine Explored – Castle of Peveril of the Peak, &c. – Dovedale....... p. 273 to 280.

CHAPTER XXV.

On the Road to Haddon Hall – Situation and appearance of Haddon Hall – Historical remarks connected therewith – The entrance and rooms close to it – The Chapel – The Banqueting Hall – Breach of Drinking Etiquette, how punished – The Ball Room – The Gardens and Dorothy Vernon's Walk – The Eagle Tower – Chatsworth........... p. 281 to 299.

CHAPTER XXVI.

A Black Country – Kenilworth Castle – Warwick Castle, entrance to it – Guy's Tower – Ancient Places – The Pride of Counties.......... p. 300 to 305-

CHAPTER XXVII.

Antwerp Cathedral and the Churches of St. Paul and St. James – Rotterdam to Amsterdam – The City of Pasture Lands – A Happy Village – Dutch Characteristics – The Return Journey – A Long Bridge and a Sea Inundation – Luxembourg.......... p. 306 to 315.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The City of Metz from the top of its Cathedral – A visit to tbe Battle-field of St. Privat and Gravelotte – Monuments on the Battle-field of St. Privat – French Memorial to their slain – Conflict at Gravelotte – Number of Germans and French killed and wounded........ p. 316 to 327.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Bale, its Cathedral – A glimpse of the Upper Rhine – Zurich – Notes on Zurich – Its Inhabitants – Its Institutions – Its Lakes and Vineyards........... p. 328 to 335.

CHAPTER XXX.

The Town of Belfort – An Hotel and its Belfort Proprietor – Belfort Castle – A Siege Guardian of the Night – A Breakfast in a Railway Train – Anecdote of a Cheese......... p. 336 to 341.

CHAPTER XXXI.

How my friends fared during the Siege of Paris – A Visit to the ground occupied by the Besiegers – A German Battery in a Frenchman's Garden – A Villa with a Mexican Gateway – The Vendome Column – The Trial of Marshal Bazaine.......... p. 342 to 351.

CHAPTER XXXII.

The Emperor Napoleon III. – His Death and Lying in State.......... p. 352 to 356.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

London and a Coup d'ceil – British Trade – The Royal Exchange – London Improvements – The Underground Railway – Tunnel under the Thames – Continued increase in the size of London......... p. 357 to 364.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Still in search of a Coup d'ceil – The Albert Hall – Externally and Internally – The Coup d'oeil found – Prince Consort Memorial – Its Sculptures........ p. 365 to 374.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Thames Embankment, its underground arrangements, its appearance – The Parliament Houses – Westminster Hall – The Hall of Statues – The Central Hall – A Visit to London a.d., 2575 – Concluding Remarks........... p. 375 to 388.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A continuation of an Historical Sketch of New Zealand Loans........ p. 389 to 406

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Beginning of the last Chapter – Mr. Vogel's South Sea Island Scheme – The Premier of New Zealand in London – Arrival of a New Secretary – How the Great Loan was raised – Mr. Vogel at the Offices – My interview with a great Man – His Marble Bust – A Letter respecting him – His Appetite. My Resignation – Sir Julius returns to London – His financial perplexity – An important Telegram – Conclusion...... p. 407 to 418.

CHAPTER VIII. PERSONAL MATTERS HASTEN MY DEPARTURE TO NEW ZEALAND...

CHAPTER VIII.

PERSONAL MATTERS HASTEN MY DEPARTURE TO NEW ZEALAND – G. R. STEPHENSON'S LETTER – UNPROPITIOUS START FROM SOUTHAMPTON – ON BOARD THE ATRATO – ARRIVAL AT ST. THOMAS – ITS CHARACTERISTICS – PASSAGE FROM ST. THOMAS TO COLON.

NO sooner had I returned from Paris to London, than I commenced to finally pack up for a long journey to New Zealand. This course was rendered necessary by there being no immediate prospect of a settlement of the Wharf and Slip dispute then still pending between the Messrs. Kennards and the Provincial Government of Wellington. One of the firm, Mr. Howard Kennard, had gone out and arrived in Wellington; but this gentleman only widened the breach instead of repairing it. So I resolved to at once return to the Colony to assist in procuring an amicable adjustment of the existing differences. My own private affairs also required my presence in Wellington: besides these matters, Kennards' dispute had become personally painful to myself, for I had been informed that Mr. H. Kennard had – in Wellington – greatly misrepresented the information, respecting the nature of the ground or foundations of the site of the proposed Slip in Evans's Bay, which I had – from memory – in an unofficial capacity and as one contractor, friendly to another, would do – freely given to

his firm. This dispute worried me and made me despondent and very anxious: for I felt that all the trouble and anxiety I had had with the Wharf, Wanganui Bridge and the Patent Slip were likely to be unproductive of good results, in fact thrown away. I think that had Mr. H. K. remained in England the dispute could have been terminated to the satisfaction of both parties. When he first arrived in Wellington, as the representative of an important firm of London Contractors and the son of a Member of Parliament, he was looked upon as a great man and treated and believed as a gentleman. I, on the contrary, being neither great nor wealthy, and, what was worse, absent – was lukewarmly defended by my friends and seriously discredited by my political opponents. However it was not long before the public, in Wellington, began to see through Mr. H. K., as may be seen from the following extract from a letterwritten by a political opponent of mine, but a kind-hearted Irishman – the Proprietor and Editor of a Wellington Newspaper – and forwarded to me in England, when, as I had left, it was sent out to me in Wellington.

"WELLINGTON, June 8th, 1867.
* * "The Council, as you will see by the Papers, have decided upon not ratifying the Patent Slip Contract. There is now a strong revulsion of feeling on the subject. K. has deceived me from the commencement to the end by gross falsehoods; but when my eyes were opened I quickly (as you will see by my paper I have forwarded to you]) threw up the advocacy of his case. No one doubts that H. K. did more to damage his cause than any other person by his frivolous conduct and downright l – -g. I have been myself compelled to brand him a mean and contemptible – – " * * *

As a last English consolation on the above topic, and a lasting token of esteem from a high quarter, on the very day that I left London for New Zealand I received the letter herewith appended, from G. E. Stephenson, the eminent engineer, with whom, as I stated in the preceding volume,

I was associated in arranging for the contract of the Iron Bridge for Wanganui. In this work he did me the honor to consult me on some of the constructive details of the bridge – of the whole of the material for which I superintended the shipping at the East India Docks. The firm of Messrs. Kennard supplied the material for the bridge and contracted also for its erection in New Zealand. Here again Mr. H. K. raised a dispute about the foundations and got out of his contract for erecting it, as he likewise did for the Patent Slip. Now that I write the Wanganui Bridge has been erected without the assistance of the great firm of contractors, and this year (1872) I had the pleasure of procuring the insertion of a photographic view of it in the Illustrated London News.

The following is a copy of Mr. Stephenson's letter: –

"CALNE, near GREENOCK.
"June 29th, 1867.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 19th, allow me to assure you of the great pleasure I have derived from our association in the work of the Wellington Government.

"In all our negotiations I have met with the utmost cordiality, straightforwardness, and gentlemanly feeling on your part, and I am glad to be able to express before your departure from England, how fortunate I consider your Government to have been in the choice of an Agent.

"Should the Wellington Government, at any future time, favour us with more work, it would afford us the greatest satisfaction to receive it through your hands. I am very glad that my little addition to the Museum Collection [for Wellington] has given you pleasure. I shall always be glad to hear how you are getting on in the Colony, and my services, in whatever way they can be useful to you personally in this Country, will be most willingly at your disposal.

"Wishing you a safe and prosperous voyage,"

I remain,
"MY DEAR SIR,
"Yours faithfully
"GEORGE ROBERT STEPHENSON,"

"C. R CARTER, Esq.

A NEW ZEALAND COLONIST.

Late in the evening of the 1st of July, 1867, myself, wife and daughter (and some friends going out with us) were at the Waterloo Station waiting for the train to start and take us on the first stage of our journey to Wellington in New Zealand. I was standing by a portion of our luggage on the trucks, to see that it was properly placed in the luggage van, when the Inspector at the luggage office told me not to mind it, for he would see it ticketed and placed in the train all right. At 9 o'clock the train moved off, and we bade adieu to old friends who had come with us to the station to bid us good-bye. After then we passed the Clock Tower of the Houses of Parliament; next the Victoria Tower of ditto, both looming large and lonely – in a dusky atmosphere – from across the river. Then we looked on the myriads of spectre-like chimney-pots and the tiled roofs below us and on a level with us, and soon was London lost to our view. Silent were our meditations: sorrowful were our thoughts at leaving, apparently, for the last time the greatest of Great Cities, where we had spent so many agreeable days. As I took a last look, I asked myself if we should ever see London again; but this was a question I could not then answer.

In due time we arrived at Southampton, and quickly we found that we had lost our luggage. It was not in the train. What had become of it? At near midnight, I telegraphed back to Waterloo Station to enquire if it had been left there. At 6 o'clock next morning the answer came, and was – "It is not at Waterloo." I telegraphed to other places connected with the line. In half an hour came a second telegram, curtly announcing – "It is gone to Jersey." This was unpleasant news. It was more than that, it was excessively annoying and inconvenient; for the lost luggage contained our wardrobe wanted on the voyage, my private papers, and our valuables in the shape of jewellery and other articles. What was to be done? Stop and lose our passage, already paid for? The steamer

was to sail at three in the afternoon of the same day. A decision was soon come to. I decided not to be left behind. We purchased a second outfit of only necessary clothing: I arranged for the lost luggage to be forwarded on to us in New Zealand; and on the afternoon of the second of July we embarked on board the Royal Mail paddle-wheel steam-ship "Atrato," 3126 tons burthen, with 800-horse power, and capable of carrying 394 passengers.

The first day's voyage was fine. I may say the same of all the others up to the 16th of July, when we cast anchor in the harbor of St. Thomas in the West Indies. This little voyage of 3581 miles in a fortnight, or at the average rate of about 255 miles a-day, was the pleasantest sea passage I had ever undertaken. The "Atrato," with her great beam and gigantic paddle-wheels, steamed along steadily all the way: so much so, that, for once in my life, I was not troubled with sea-sickness. The saloon of the "Atrato" was grand and spacious, and with fresh fish, poultry, flesh, vegetables and bread supplied to the table all the way – made one feel almost as comfortable as if living in a first-class hotel in London.

The Isle of St. Thomas is a small barren hilly island, twelve miles in length, three in breadth. It derives its principal importance from the harbor on its southern side. The harbor is considered good for the West Indies: yet it is but a deep small bay about 2 1/2 miles in depth, and 1 1/2 in width. It is open to the sea at one end and surrounded by hills at the other end and two sides. However, the position of the island and the harbor, such as it is, have made it a principal station of the Royal Mail Steam Packets. The capital of the island, Charlotte-Amalie, is here, and being a free port, between three and four thousand vessels of all nations are yearly attracted here, and the place has become a depot, for merchandise, of great importance The island belongs to Denmark, and contains about 15,000 inhabitants.

The town is seated at the bottom of the Bay. The houses forming the town are clustered on the beach and in the hollows, but mostly on the slopes of three spurs running from the hills which form the shores of this part of the harbour of St. Thomas. Where the buildings rise one above another on the three spurs, and are conspicuous by their red roofs and white walls, the town has a very pretty and picturesque appearance – when seen from the deck of a steamer in the harbour. When we landed, strange sights presented themselves. Most of the people we saw were black – swarthy crowds as

ST. THOMAS.

thick as berries on an English blackberry hedge. The shops and houses were mostly two-stories in height: the lower one being built of stone, the upper one of wood and provided with a shingled roof. A few of the two storied houses were constructed of brick. Generally speaking the houses were painted, outside – in pink, yellow or white colors. The shops had no glass to the windows, but mostly green louvred casements inside, and light blue solid shutters to the outside, which closed and fastened at night. The town – from the burrows I saw in the streets – seemed pestered with rats. The country,

too, like other hot countries, was teeming with insect life. People here rise by daylight in the morning and take coffee; then breakfast at 10, and dinner in the cool of the evening. Boarding and lodging at the Hotels cost 2 1/2 dollars (10s. 6d.) per day. Hair cutting was the most expensive operation. A friend of mine and myself entered a shop to have our heads shampooed and hair cut. The hairdresser was a black artist. His scissors and hair brush were worn and old; but he operated on my friend's head in a most satisfactory manner. I thought it wise to ask the cost of this cooling operation replete with delicious sensations; so I said to our cool, civil, and nonchalant hairwasher, hairdresser, and beard-cutter, "What do you charge for the cutting and shampooing process you have performed on my friend?" He blandly replied, "One dollar sir." "Indeed," I remarked; "do you charge 4s. 2d. for cutting hair and shampooing? It must be a joke." He replied, "No! No! sir, dat his de usual price to gentlemen." "Then," I enquired, "what do you charge those persons who are not "gentlemen." "All the same; but you need not be shampooed, and, in that case, you can have your hair cut for half a dollar" (2s. 1d.). My friend paid his dollar, and I quitted the shop without being operated upon.

In the main street I saw black carpenters, black painters, and black laborers, at work. On small plots of ground, in the streets, cocoanut, tamarind, banana trees were growing. In one garden were acacia trees resplendent and loaded with gorgeous scarlet flowers. Formerly there were sugar plantations on the island; but very little sugar cane is grown here now.

While we were staying at the island of St. Thomas, one of R. Mail boats, the "Tyne," came in with a number of passengers ill of the Chagres fever, and the Mail Agent dead from it. This was not encouraging for us; but we were thankful that we had not long to stay at St. Thomas' and its yellow fever associations, for late on the afternoon of the 17th we left

St. Thomas in the steamer "Solent," 1689 tons burthen and 400-horse power. Before dark, we had passed several small islands on our right. July 18th was fine, but with a nasty cross sea rolling and pitching us about. The 19th was ditto; and by this time we had found out that the "Solent" was an intercolonial boat – old and dirty, with a crew nearly all blacks, and with sable stewards to wait upon us at table. On the 20th we were still crossing the Caribbean Sea, in hot weather – with occasional lightning – and feeling the effects of a close and clammy atmosphere. The evenings were the best. The Captain and his officers (all British) were social. The atmosphere was cooler, and we had instrumental and vocal music to entertain us.

On Sunday, the 21st we sighted Colon on the Isthmus of Panama, and anchored a little way from the shore. Next day we went alongside the wharf, and landed at Colon, a small seaport town in the State of New Granada, South America.

CHAPTER IX. COLON – A RAILWAY FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN...

CHAPTER IX.

COLON – A RAILWAY FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN – THE JOURNEY FROM COLON TO PANAMA – A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CITY OF PANAMA – DEPARTURE FROM PANAMA AND ARRIVAL AT THE ISLAND OF PITCAIRN – SOME ACCOUNT OF PITCAIRN AND ITS INHABITANTS – WE LEAVE AND ARRIVE AT RAPA – VOYAGE FROM THERE TO COOK'S STRAITS. – A DISASTER AVOIDED AND WELLINGTON HARBOUR REACHED.

COLON, at the time I visited it, was not an attractive place to live in, or to look at. It stood on an open flat of land near to the lower end of a small bay – about five miles deep and three in width – on the eastern side of the Isthmus of Panama. It was open to the sea on one side, and was surrounded by bush-covered land on its three other sides. What was called the sea-port town of Colon (Aspinwall) consisted of a few scattered houses and a number of huts, sheltering a population, mostly colored, and numbering about 3000. The site on which it was built was swampy. The water in front of it was shallow, and had been filled in so as to form pools or basins, and roads across it, whereby the wharves were reached from the land side. The largest of ships could unload at the wharves. The town itself had a neglected, unfinished, and dirty appearance. The streets were unformed, unpaved, and hardly traceable. The principal houses, were old dilapidated wooden structures, two stories in height, and with two verandahs one above the other; yet this was the transit depot for immense

supplies of goods, (high in price but small in bulk) for the Mails and for tens of thousands of passengers on their way to San Francisco and South American ports. A few good stone buildings were in course of erection, and would improve the appearance of the town and add to the comfort of its residents, when completed; but at this time the best buildings being intermingled with the worst and also with sheets of stagnant water and railway embankments, gave one a good idea of the very inferior capabilities and government of the mongrel races who inhabit these southern regions. It was true the place was now important, but Yankee enterprise had made it so, by constructing the first railway ever made from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, as shown on the map below.

PANAMA ISTHMUS.

What gave a repulsive character to the whole place, was the sight of great lazy turkey buzzards, perched on the ridges and gable points of the roofs of the houses, in motionless state, and glutted with the offal they had picked up in the streets and other dirty places – in their capacity of scavengers of Colon. What with the climate and want of cleanliness, it is no wonder that fever permanently resides here. All our passengers were afraid to stay long in it.

The railway across the Isthmus from Colon to Panama consists of only one line, which is 47 miles in length. It was constructed at great expense, mostly by imported labor and at a great sacrifice of human life; so much so as to give rise to the saying that, "The laying of each sleeper on the line cost the life of a man." The time occupied in crossing the Isthmus here, by railway, is usually about four hours. We commenced crossing it at 2 p.m. It was then I recalled to mind the names of the Spanish adventurers and the bold British Buccaneers, who had made this narrow strip of land – uniting two great continents – famous by their exploits. The first part of our journey was through a flat and swampy country – a real jungle – for four miles, at the end of which we stopped at a railway station, built of wood, two stories in height, with an upper and a lower verandah, and neatly painted. A blast from a horn announced our departure from here, when we found ourselves travelling near to the muddy waters of the river Chagres, which was here about 40 feet in width. On the far side of it were, I observed, a patch of native mud huts, with high-pitched thatched roofs. Four miles more and we were at another neat station, in a tropical garden, and a village composed of reed huts close by it. We stopped next at – at what? the two uncouth sounds of a horn, to take in wood for the boiler fires. The wood, which is plentiful here, being cut in one-foot lengths and stacked alongside the line at fixed intervals, is used instead of coal. On each side of the line, and

for nearly its whole length, was a luxuriant tropical forest, growing on hilly and undulating ground. A space of ahout fifty feet on each side of the line was kept clear to admit the sun and wind, to dry and ventilate the line; otherwise it would soon he covered and ahsorbed by the rapid and dense hot-house-like growth which is peculiar to these regions. A third station, in a square garden enclosed with white posts, rails, and pales, was arrived at and left behind. Our route lay along the course of the river Chagres, sometimes at a distance, and at other times close to its banks, as may be noticed on the map of the Isthmus. The line was not fenced in, and stoppages to the trains and accidents – principally from cattle straying on it – were often occurring. We had next a view of the chocolate-colored waters of the Chagres, and then we came to another native village, large yet wretched looking: but it had native shops; the principal commodities in them, for sale, appeared to be bottles of liquids of uninviting aspect. The native shopkeepers were standing behind the rude counters, in a state – three parts naked. We passed another station, like the last; then we came to a few acres of green fields and a sort of farm-house. Here we crossed the Chagres by means of a red colored iron bridge, standing close to a station like the one we had last quitted. Near this place we had a fine view of several reaches of the river, and hills in the distance. We could see small cattle grazing, and a native village, with natives in light colored checked shirts sitting at their doors. After two more blasts from that horrid sounding horn we stopped at Mamei. These stations, besides being stopping places, were also used for the accommodation of the workmen employed to keep the line in order. At Mamei we were 21 miles from Panama, and had to remain a short time for the train from Panama. It soon arrived, and, as the line is a double one here, we were transferred to the line it had travelled on, and it was placed on the line we had come by. This line, as it

recedes from Colon, rises to a height of 262 ft. above the sea level, and then descends to the Pacific Ocean at Panama. It rises from Colon at the rate of 60 feet to one mile, and descends at the same gradient to Panama. It rains often here, and the climate is generally moist and hot. A tremendous tropical shower overtook us soon after we had left Mamei. We duly arrived at Paraiso, a station like the rest – looking neat, clean, and picturesque, amidst tropical scenery.

PARAISO STATION ON THE PANAMA RAILROAD.

After this, we passed through a hilly country, a grass plain, a village, and grassy hills and hollows, here and there intermingled with gorgeous flowers, small evergreen trees, and innumerable beautiful and peculiar looking shrubs.

At ten miles from Panama we had hard work to ascend a hill over which the line ran. The engine wheels slipped on the rails, when we had made the ascent over half-way up the incline. So we had to go rapidly down the hill backwards and

ascend the hill we had just descended, to get an impetus on the train, and so carry us – with the aid of our steam power – to the top of the hill we wanted to reach. A second time we failed: the passengers became anxious; but on the third trial we barely managed to be successful, and descended to Panama, where we arrived after a journey lasting 3 1/2 hours, and costing the large sum of twenty-five dollars, or (for each passenger) nearly £5, for forty-seven miles.

Panama is an old Colonial Spanish town, containing about 15,000 inhabitants. It stands on a tongue of land with the sea on three sides of it. It has been a walled town; but the walls which now remain are those by the sea-side – towards which the streets run. The old streets had a Spanish appearance. They were only about twenty feet in width. The houses on each side of them are solidly built of stone, and of unequal heights of from two to three stories. Some had one green balcony, others two, according to the height of the buildings. Some of the streets led into the principal square, called the Cathedral Piazza, in which was situated the Grand Hotel, a spacious, and neat-looking building, with two tiers of balconies adorning its two main fronts. Opposite to this hotel was the old stone-built cathedral, flanked by two quaint-looking and three-storied square towers, with roofs terminating in points. It looked a neglected edifice, for plants were growing all over its outer surface. Inside it, I noticed numbers of plain columns and arches, some dauby paintings, paltry woodwork decoration, and a dilapidated squeaking organ, fixed in a precarious organ loft. The altar looked imposing and grandiose – bedecked with candles, flowers, and massive silver decorations.

The back-streets that I walked through wore a repulsive appearance, except where they were relieved by the aspect of the beautiful green and gracefully drooping foliage of cocoa-nut trees planted here and there.

The natural surfaces of these streets or back lanes were neither paved nor gravelled; but they were strewed with filth and dirt. The houses bounding them were rudely constructed of wood, and sheltered half naked inhabitants. In the more public and better streets I noticed that – like the rest of their sex – the ladies of Panama were fond of finery. There they were in the shops, or sometimes sitting on the stone steps of the doors

PANAMA CATHEDRAL.

of their dwellings, attired in light and airy soiled spotted muslin dresses, trimmed with Spanish white lace, which contrasted strangely and unpleasantly with their dark brown skins and their otherwise untidy appearance, which was not improved when, occasionally, they wore a Panama straw hat with a very-wide brim. Many of the stone houses were in a state of ruin. Signs of decay in Panama, as a town, were visible all over the place. Panama is noted for its ruins; Ah! and ruins too,

with sculptured masonry bearing many traces of magnificence. The grand and imposing remains of the Jesuits' College – which was never completed – attest this. Then there are the ruins of the Church of St. Domingo, which, when I saw it, was fitted as a temporary theatre. This is a remarkable ruin. So is an-

A PANAMA BELLE.

other inferior building I was shown, and in which I noticed an eliptical arch constructed of thin bricks with a span of about 36 feet and a rise of about 7 feet in the centre, which for several feet, in the middle of it, was almost flat – yet the arch has stood for many years. The country about Panama is

picturesque in appearance, from the little plains about it being covered with shrubs and savannas clothed with green and velvety grass; but there lurk the pumas and other wild beasts and reptiles.

The Bay of Panama is very large. It measures about 135 miles in width by a depth inland of 120 miles. It is a noble and-beautiful looking bay, studded with islands, some looking green, others hilly and covered with scrub (low bush), like the mainland surrounding the bay.

The present town of Panama, a city of New Granada, maybe called a new town; for the original city of Panama – mostly built of wood, but with a few stone buildings – was taken and destroyed in the year 1671 (after an existence of 152 years) by Morgan and his Buccaneers. After this, in 1673, the Panameans built the present city, which is six miles west of the old one. One of our passengers rode through a wild and difficult country to see the latter, and on his return informed me that he only saw – where the city once stood – a few stone walls and trees growing amongst them.

On the 24th of July we went on board the Mail Steamer "Kaikoura," Captain Machin, 1500 tons burthen, and 350-horse power, which was to convey us to New Zealand. Next day we weighed anchor and steamed away, passing several islands and the large one named Tobago, with its snug little town seated on the shores of a small but pretty bay. The sun shone hotly. The weather was warm and the sea calm. From this time we kept steaming on at an average rate of about 10 miles an hour, with the thermometer ranging from 74 to 80 degrees – until the 10th of August, when we sighted Elizabeth Island, a low, barren, flat mass of rock, five miles long by one wide, and uninhabited. We sighted this island at one o'clock in the morning, and at eight, on the same morning, a soft cloudy looking little mound was visible at a distance of about forty miles. This was Pitcairn Island.

By twelve o'clock at noon we were within one mile of it, and close to what is called Bounty Bay; but which looked very much like the open sea. Pitcairn Island was discovered as late as 1767, by Captain Carteret. From its rocky and precipitous shores with deep water alongside them a near approach to it is dangerous. This island lies in latitude 25 deg. 3 min. 37 sec. S., and longitude 130 deg. 8 min. 23 sec. W., and is about 2 1/4 miles long by over one mile wide.

BOUNTY BAY IN PITCAIRN ISLAND.

Its area may be roughly estimated at nearly 2000 acres, and the altitude of its highest peak about 1000 feet. It is in fact an island hill with its sides formed into mounds and ridges, and with easy slopes and pretty valleys containing flats of rich land. As soon as we arrived at Bounty Bay, we saw it would be dangerous to attempt to land with our boats; so our Captain ordered the steam to be shut off and the boiler fires to be prepared for starting after an afternoon's stay – off and close to, if not on, the Island of Pitcairn. The above engraving is from a sketch taken by my daughter.

As the weather was very fine and the sea nearly calm, the view of the island from the deck of the "Kaikoura" was romantically picturesque and, in its softness, charming. We could see the misty smoke ascending from human habitations built under the shade of groves of cocoa-nut trees and in proximity to orange and bread-fruit trees, planted – and luxuriantly growing and abundantly yielding fruits of their several kinds – in the broad valley, rising from Bounty Bay, in the centre of the island, nearly opposite to where we lay. I imagine that there are few of my readers who have not heard of the armed ship "Bounty," 215 tons burthen, sent out to Tahiti,to procure bread-fruit trees for planting in the West Indies, and commanded by Lieutenant Bligh, an arbitrary officer, against whom a portion of the crew, headed by the chief-mate, Fletcher Christian, unwisely mutinied, on the 28th of April, 1789. They next forced Commander Bligh and eighteen others into a provisioned launch, and cast it adrift. 1 After a return to and a stay at Tahiti, to land dissentients of the crew remaining, the mutineers bore away, and at last made the Island of Pitcairn about the end of the year 1789. Here they landed the stores and everything movable belonging to the vessel, and, on the 23rd of January, 1790, the carcase of the "Bounty" was sunk 25 fathoms deep in Bounty Bay, and Christian and his comrades believed, or wished to believe, themselves beyond the reach of discovery. These mutineers consisted of nine British sailors accompanied by eighteen natives from Tahiti (six men and twelve women, one with a baby). Disagreeing amongst themselves at times, they commenced fighting each other in a murderous manner; so much so, that in the course of their first ten years' residence on the island, there remained, at the end of that period, only the women, nineteen children, and one

man, in this "Garden of Eden," and his name was Adam or, to be exact, Alexander Smith, alias John Adams.

Fortunately the mutineers had landed with some Bibles and prayer-books in their possession. Adams now alone – as a man – in his little island, began to read the good words and precepts in these books, and he became a changed man. From being a great reprobate he became a pious Christian. Like a good father of a family, he successfully trained his little community in the paths of sobriety, industry, virtue and religion, which made them good citizens and happy subjects of their king and patriarch, plain John Adams. Time rolled on till the year 1808 (Haydn says 1814, which is incorrect), 2 when their location was accidentally discovered by Captain Folger, of the American Ship "Topaze." In the year 1854, their numbers had increased to nearly 200, when several gentlemen interested themselves in their welfare. It was then found that the numbers of the Pitcairners were increasing beyond the means of subsistence that the island could afford. The result was that, in 1856, 92 males and 102 females were conveyed from Pitcairn Island to Norfolk Island, which is situated about 400 miles N.W. of New Zealand, and is six miles long and four miles broad.

After being settled on this fruitful island for some little time a few of them pined to return to their old abode. Their longings were gratified; for two families returned in the year 1858 to their first and only homes, and were, with after arrivals, in possession of the island when we arrived abreast of it. As soon as they saw our steamer, eight narrow and deep canoes, painted red and white, put off, and – sailing and paddling as best they could – were soon alongside our steamship. Each canoe contained but one man. The eight natives that thus visited us were all attired in light trowsers and

shirts, and their canoes contained fine bananas and oranges, large cabbages, onions, shalots, potatoes and beautiful flowers; among which were daisies and orange blossoms, all brought to barter, for slops, powder, caps, and old clothes, for use by the whole community; and brandy, wine, and flour, required for the sick.

One man amongst them was recognised as their chief to buy and sell. His name was Thursday October Christian, which meant a great deal. He informed me, in excellent English, that, about three years before this time, he and nearly fifty others left Norfolk Island to return to Pitcairn, which they liked better than any other place. He told me they had a chapel at the other side of the island, the services of which were well attended, and that the sexes of their little community were about equal, and they were all very happy. Those natives who came off to the ship spoke good English. One called himself McCoy, another Young. They were all descendants of the mutineers. Only three or four came on board; the remainder were left to take care of the canoes and the stores afloat. The oranges they sold to us were the largest and most delicious I had ever tasted. They lingered long about the steamer, and had an abundant supply of good useful clothing given to them; but the time – late in the afternoon – came when we must leave them behind. The Captain appeared on the bridge; the Chief Engineer gave orders to start the engine; our large steamship began to move through the smooth waters; Thursday October Christian descended the ship's side by a rope ladder into his curious and frail craft called a canoe; there he stood, with tears in his eyes, as if reluctant to part with us; he and his comrades looked on as we steamed away; we looked at them, and then we gazed on the miniature green woods – the brown patches of soil made ready for crops on the hill sides – the banana and other fruit-tree plantations growing in sheltered nooks

and little valleys – the high peak and the rugged rocks, all of which, combined, formed their romantic island home, which, as the shades of evening closed around us, gradually disappeared, melted away, and left us mentally wishing these lonely but contented and interesting islanders a final good-bye.

About a year after our stay at Pitcairn the N. Z. and Panama line of steamers ceased to run from Panama to Wellington, and as the Island of Pitcairn lies out of the general track of trading vessels, I fear now, and for years to come, that the Islanders of Pitcairn will know little of, and have much less communication with the great world outside them, than they have lately been used to. Since the time that Sir Thomas More wrote his Utopia, great and learned men have written and devised plans for making people perfectly happy, but none have succeeded: it remained for an unlettered sailor – John Adams – to make the nearest approach to communal ideal happiness at Pitcairn Island. 3

Three days after leaving the Island of Pitcairn, on the evening of the 13th, we reached the Island of Oparo, or Rapa, situated in latitude 27 deg. 37 min. 40 sec. S., and longitude 144 deg. 15 min. W. It is about 8 miles long and 6 miles wide; it contained a miserable population of nearly 1500 souls, has a good harbour, and was used as a coaling station for the N. Z. and P. Mail Steam-ships, of which our ship, the "Kaikoura," formed one. To myself this island presented a wild and uninviting appearance, and consists, for the most part, of lofty peaks connected by bare and sharp ridges. It lies 2 1/2 degrees further south than Pitcairn. It is therefore colder. Neither the bread-fruit tree nor the cocoa-nut will ripen their fruit here. The oranges grown are sour: but potatoes and cabbages can be cultivated with success. We arrived abreast

of the harbour on a stormy night, and just as it was becoming dusk; here our steamer was hove to, – rockets were thrown up, blue lights were burned, a gun was fired, – but no boats coming off we left, when, an hour after sunset, a nearly full moon occasionally shone from between the driving clouds, and threw fitful gleams of light on land, and sea, and lighted us on our way as, without regret, we took our departure from the Island of Rapa.

Wednesday the 14th brought a sudden change of wind, which freshened into a heavy gale, accompanied by loud peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning. This gale damaged our sails. The next day was fine, when the dead bodies of a passenger and seaman, who died the day previous, were sewed up in their hammocks, weighted to sink, placed on a gun carriage, and – as the burial service was being solemnly read – passed through a gun port, and then, after a plunge and a splash, the corpses disappeared in the deep waters of the South Pacific Ocean. One of the men was a passenger who died of consumption, the other a sailor who succumbed to Chagres fever. Next day the personal effects of both were sold, on deck, by auction, and the proceeds of the sale remained with the Captain for future distribution amongst the relatives of the deceased.

We continued our voyage until the 21st, which was the day we should – according to the Mail contract time – have been in Wellington, yet we were 1000 miles from it. The weather continued fine; and on Saturday the 25th, when in longitude 180 deg., we lost a day, – that is, to correct our reckoning, we skipped over a day, and passed from Saturday to Monday, the 26th. Monday was, to us, a remarkable day. It was both pleasant and unpleasant. We were cheerful in the morning and desponding in the evening. The wind was light but fair; the sea was well nigh calm; the sky was without a cloud, and the sun shone out in full splendour – when I went on deck at

7 o'clock in the morning, and found, to my surprise, that we were within seven miles of New Zealand- Cape Turnagajn was before us. So, "on to Wellington!" was now the cry. Great was our pleasure as we sailed and steamed alpng the, coast – at about five miles' distance from it – all day, and, until – at 7 o'clock in the evening – -we were at the entrance of Cook's Straits, when, to the surprise of the passengers, we found out that the commander of our steam-ship, Capt, Machin, was tipsy, and giving contrary directions as ta steering the ship. I spoke to him as to the steamer's position, when he pointed, to two lights, or fires, in Palliser Bay, and said, "that's the light from the Lighthouse at Wellington Heads." I knew this was impossible, as we were miles away from the latter place, and a range of mountains intervened and shut out the light on Pencarrow head at the entrance to the Port of Wellington. I saw at once that to obey his orders was certain destruction to the ship, and, perhaps, loss of life to passengers. Yet, what could be done? The Captain was an experienced navigator, and was supreme on board. There he was, I was informed, standing, or rather staggering about, on the bridge, till at last he fell off and down upon the iron gratings below, and severely cut his forehead. At this juncture I was sent for, from the saloon below, by the Mail Agent and the chief Officer. I went on deck and persuaded him to go into his cabin: here we washed the blood from his wounded face, but could not induce him to stay in his cabin. He again went on the bridge, turned the handle of the indicator – which conveyed instructions to the Engineers below in the engine room – first one way, then another, in a bewildering way. Again we got him down into his cabin. He called for case gin. It was given him, and he soon drank himself to sleep and incapability. Meanwhile some other passengers and myself consulted together, and came to the conclusion that the Mail Agent – to save the ship and passengers from im-

minent danger – should request the Chief Officer to take charge of it, which he did, and steered it for Wellington Heads, where we arrived about midnight. It was too dark to enter Wellington harbour then; so we stood off and on till daylight. No one went to bed that night. I never passed a more anxious night at sea, than I did on this occasion: fortunately the weather was moderately fine, otherwise we should have been in great danger; for the Chief Officer admitted that he knew but little of the ship's position or the rock-bound coasts on either side of it. After many wishes for daylight, it came at last, when we entered the narrow channel leading to the harbour of Wellington, where we anchored on the morning of the 27th of August, 1867; just six days after our due date.

1 Lieutenant Bligh and his companions, after a remarkable voyage of 4,000 miles, and great suffering, reached the island of Timor in June.

2 See Lady Belcher's account of the "Mutineers of the Bounty."

3 See Lady Belcher's excellent account of the Mutineers of the "Bounty."

CHAPTER X. MY PROCEEDINGS IN THE WAIRARAPA...

CHAPTER X.

MY PROCEEDINGS IN THE WAIRARAPA. – MEETING AT GREYTOWN. – OBSERVATIONS ON MY POSITION AS TRUSTEE. – REMARKS ON EDUCATION. – PUBLIC MEETING AT MASTERTON.

IMMEDIATELY after our arrival in Wellington, an investigation into Captain Madiin's conduct, while he was in a state of intoxication on board the "Kaikoura," took place, and resulted in the cancellation of his certificate as Master of the "Kaikoura," and his consequent degradation from the position of Captain.

As regards ourselves, we found the city of Wellington much extended in size, and improved in appearance, compared with what it was when we had last left it. We also found many kind friends to welcome us back again. 4

Soon after we had settled down in our old house, Wellington Terrace, I made it my first business to go and visit my friends; and former constituents in the Wairarapa District; and I certainly feel a pleasure in here recording that a very kind reception 5 was given to me, which proved that I had not lost the confidence of those electors who were the first to give me a political start and place their trust in me as a public man.

In October I held a public meeting in Greytown, for the purpose of rendering an account of my Trusteeship of the Wairarapa Small-Farm Reserves and Town Acres; and also to recommend that the funds then in hand, and to accrue in the future, should be devoted to form an endowment fund for a Wairarapa Grammar School. The following are extracts from the address that I delivered on the occasion: –

"Mr. CARTER said, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, – I am glad to find myself amongst so many old friends and new faces. The former remind me of old associations and pleasant days, the latter indicate to me the attractions of the Wairarapa and the progress it has made since I left it four years ago. I appear before you to-night to render you an account as your Trustee for the Town Lands of Greytown. I have not been able to do this as soon as I expected, from having been detained in town with my own affairs – sadly in arrear after such a long absence. I also received from the Wairarapa during one week eight letters, when of course I could not but attend to the requests contained in them, which helped to detain me; still I thank you for the forbearance you have shewn me in waiting so patiently and so uncomplainingly, and I venture to hope that the statement I am about to make to you may be as satisfactory as others I have made to you in by-gone days. (Hear, hear) I have served two apprenticeships to you in this matter, for it is now fourteen years since I was bound to.

you as one of the Committee of the Small Farm Association. It is at this moment my sincere desire that the trust should be honorably closed as speedily as possible, and that my indentures should be cancelled, with your approval and for my relief, for I think that you will admit that the responsibility of being trustee for 240 Town Acres and 48 acres of Reserved Town Lands, and issuing conveyances (under regulations somewhat vague) for the Town Acres, is not a light public duty: particularly so when, sometimes, purchasers would not take up their grants when they were ready, and I had to move them from one person's charge to another. * * * "

On the subject of Education, I spoke as follows: –

"The main and most important question now remains for me to touch upon, that is, what is to be done with the 28 Town Acres and 48 acres of Reserves, in order that the greatest amount of public good may be derived from them? To my mind your course is clear and distinct. Education was to be promoted by these Reserves. The Small Farm Committee suggested this, and your good sense and intelligence will, I trust, approve it. Is there anything of more importance to the well-being of society than education 1 Yet how much apathy exists on this subject. It is true that considerable progress has been made in this district in providing an elementary education; but can any one point to a free grammar school from one end of the Province to the other? No; nothing that I am aware of has been done to introduce a higher class of instruction for those youths whose mental qualities – whose brains – are of a higher order than the average. There is a sprinkling of clever boys in every community thirsting for knowledge; for these there is no intellectual opening. Mere reading, writing, and arithmetic are but the tools whereby to gain knowledge and acquire that sort of education which disciplines the mind and makes men able to grapple with and overcome social and political difficulties. I would ask, what is to become of our vaunted New Zealand free Institutions, if the rising and coming generations of this colony do not furnish educated politicians? The present race of old and distinguished colonists will soon pass away. What persons are to replace them? Are we always to import statesmen and professionals from the old country? That would neither be

to our interest nor our credit; it would be derogatory to us as Englishmen. I am sure you feel and see this great educational want as much as I do. It is no new idea of mine. I have cherished it for years, and during my visit to England I saw much that made me feel acutely that our New Zealand youth are greatly inferior, not in mental capacity, but in intellectual training: it is premature to talk of Universities and Colleges, and stuffing boys with a knowledge of the classics, while the establishment of grammar schools – middle-class schools – has been so generally neglected in this Province. We have the primary or elementary schools; we want next that sound, practical, and general education of the English grammar school, or first-class academy. It is these institutions that have sent forth into the world the men who have made England the great country it is. There are three stages of learning: first, that acquired in the common school; second, that obtained in the grammar school; third, that, the highest class, to be derived from a college. Establish the first and second, and colleges as soon after as you can; but I am convinced that neither the second nor the third can be established without Government aid and endowments, and the sooner we begin this the better. Education should be a national object, for it contributes to make a nation successful, even in war, and great and prosperous in peace. The Prussians are a well-educated people. They beat the half-educated Austrian subjects in war, and are equal to France in peace. Education is a national pride in the United States; and, allowing a large margin for American boasting, who will venture to assert that they have not been victorious in war, and are famous for the progress they have made? – and at that place, where might be seen the grandest display of human ingenuity and intellect, the French Exhibition in Paris – America put in an appearance, which, if it did not 'beat all creation,' it made men wonder at the resources and wealth, and admire the quick intelligence of Americans, as displayed in their natural products, locomotives, agricultural implements and manufactures. But what the Americans prided themselves most upon, was not a building to represent a gaudy palace or a magnificent temple; but something showing they had not lost old English notions of plainness and utility; they exhibited full-sized model wood buildings of a farmer's home in the far west and a common school of the States (hear, hear); the

latter larger and loftier, but not unlike the school we are in now. In the school was a Commissioner to explain the school system peculiar to America. Now I dare say some of you are ready to ask, 'What did New Zealand exhibit? Well, that New Zealand which thinks so much of herself – which contains a population of over 200,000 – which exported in 1865 over two millions sterling worth of gold, and above a million's worth of wool – which has educated men and eminent men as her leaders and legislators – which talks of loans by millions up to seven – which submits to have a more expensive government and to heavier taxation than any other country – which is so poor as to require a little loan of a quarter million – which is so rich as to make a present of half a million to Home creditors (the Imperial Government) – which is to be the 'Southern United Kingdom' of the future – which is to sweep the seas – have a brush with Australia, and conquer India; how do you think this great country of anomalies was represented at the Paris Exhibition, in order that emigrants might be attracted to her shores, and capitalists be made aware of her intelligence and her vast resources? I will tell you that this colony did exhibit to the 'crowned heads' of Europe and millions of people, – one dirty Maori mat; a thigh and leg bone of the moa; a full-sized drawing of a moa; four or five unclean fleeces of wool; a sectional drawing of the Canterbury country; and what else do you think? I am afraid I should stay here all night before you guessed it, so I will tell you, – it was a bundle of heart of totara shingles, and that an indifferent specimen. (Great laughter.) I sneaked out of the New Zealand Court; for when I heard people asking the way to it I felt ashamed of my country, and my only hope for the credit of the Colony was that these contributions had been sent by patriotic Maories. (Cheers.) There is not a man in this room but what could aid in this good work, if he likes – either through his good wishes or his exertions. Every father of a family has some spare time to think over and aid in this matter – of education, which so deeply concerns him, his children, and future generations. A man does not live for himself alone; he has duties to perform to his fellow men. He does not live for the present; he must have a care for the future. In conclusion, do let me impress on you the importance of assenting to what will be proposed to you when I sit down. I am

anxious to aid in the movement all I can. I am not pleading for myself. I have no political object to serve; but I cannot but feel an interest in this district, which I represented for so long a period; and though I may have been censured by some parties in the valley, I console myself with the reflection that public men must expect their public actions to be often criticised and sometimes unjustly censured. I do not complain of this – and as for any gross personal attacks that may have been made, or untruths told, by whomsoever, when I was thousands of miles away and unable to defend myself, you will agree with me that they were ungenerous, unfair, un-English, and ungentlemanly (cheers), and therefore unworthy of my notice. If my long stay in England has inconvenienced or dissatisfied you, I am sorry for it – but it was caused by my endeavours to serve the Province and not to serve myself; but that will not make me forget the great confidence placed in me by you and the consideration and kindness I have ever received at the hands of the Wairarapa people in past times. And here let me say, as I conclude, that it will always give me pleasure to serve you while I can."

The following resolutions (amongst others) were then put, and with a singular accord were unanimously passed: –

" 1. That the thanks of this meeting are due and are hereby tendered to Mr. Carter, for his very interesting address, and this meeting is of opinion that that part of it relating to the Trusteeship of the Grey-town Reserves is satisfactory.

"2. That in the opinion of this meeting it is highly desirable that a Grammar School should be established in the Wairarapa as soon as practicable."

I may here observe that the intention of the last resolution, and of others, which it will be seen were afterwards passed at Masterton, was not carried out; it being afterwards (in my absence from the Colony) considered more desirable, and it certainly was more popular, to expend the funds of the trust, at once, in public objects partially social and to some extent educational in their tendencies.

From Greytown I went to Masterton, to hold a meeting, as may be seen from the quotations below, extracted from a report of the proceedings which appeared in the Wairarapa Mercury of October 19th, 1867.

"In addition to the above meeting [held at Greytown], one was held at Masterton, on Thursday evening, where Mr. Carter was warmly welcomed by his 'old and kind friends of Masterton,' as he called them. The business was opened by the Rev. W. Ronaldson being called to the chair, when Mr. Carter made his statement, similar to the one reported above. That it was listened to with great attention and satisfaction by those present may be gathered from the following resolutions, which were carried by a unanimity equal to that of Greytown.

"That in the opinion of this meeting the revenue derived from the Educational Reserves in the Wairarapa ought to constitute a separate fund for Educational Purposes in the Wairarapa District, and that the Chairman be requested to communicate this resolution to the Government, with the view of steps being taken to give it legal effect.

"That in the opinion of this meeting it is highly desirable that one or more Grammar Schools should be established in the Wairarapa as soon as practicable, and that the question of site be left to the General Government. Such School or Schools to be under local control.

"That the thanks of this meeting are due and are hereby tendered to Mr. Carter, for his very interesting address, and this meeting is of opinion, that that part of it relating to the Trusteeship of the Masterton Reserves is satisfactory."

4 "MR. CARTER. – We are glad to welcome back to New Zealand shores, Mr. C. R. Carter, who, with his family, has been absent from the colony for four years. Mr. and Mrs. Carter returned to Wellington on Tuesday in the 'Kaikoura." – Wellington Independent.

"Many residents in this Province will learn with pleasure that Mr. C. R. Carter, a colonist of many years' standing, returned to Wellington yesterday by the 'Kaikoura, and contemplates taking up his permanent residence once more amongst us. Mr. Carter has been absent for nearly four years on a visit to the mother-country, and we are glad to hear that both himself and Mrs. Carter, and their daughter, have returned in excellent health. As a colonist who has represented an important constituency in the General Assembly, and a gentleman whom many esteem for his private worth and untiring zeal in the welfare of those who require his assistance, we heartily welcome Mr. Carter and his family back to the home of their adoption." – Wellington Advertiser, August 28th, 1867.

5 Mr. C. R. CARTER. – This gentleman, so long politically and socially connected with this district, arrived at Greytown by Cobb's Coach on Saturday afternoon, and in the evening the Wairarapa Brass Band played a series of tunes in his honor in front of his temporary abode, the appropriate air of 'Auld Lang Syne' being amongst the number. On Monday evening he held a public meeting relative to the Greytown Reserves, a report of which will be found in another column." – Wairarapa Mercury,. October 19, 1867.

CHAPTER XI. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND LOANS FROM THE YEAR 1853 TO 1874...

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND LOANS FROM THE YEAR 1853 TO 1874 – A PERIOD OF TWENTY-ONE YEARS.

HAPPY is the nation 6 which has no national debt. In the year 1853, New Zealand was in that happy, auspicious, and enviable state; it had no public debt, and no history. As a dependency of the British Empire, it was insignificant, but it was solvent and making progress proportionate to its population. It is true the British Government had generously advanced it a few thousands, for road-making in Wellington, and the location and settlement of batches of pensioned soldiers in Auckland; but then it was believed, the Imperial Government would eventually waive its claims for payment, on these heads, in favor of the Colony. In those halcyon days, no one of note proposed to borrow, because, no one saw a clear prospect of the money being lent or repaid. About this time, Messrs. E. G. Wakefield and Sewell arrived in the Colony, and this new blood brought new ideas. The former proposed to borrow money for emigration purposes: the latter for the purchase of native lands. Afterwards, Mr. Sewell and others matured their ideas into a proposal for borrowing half-a-million sterling for land purchases. What an enormous sum that appeared to us simple-minded Colonists of those days. There was a considerable amount of party asperity and opposition, in and out of the General Assembly, to this startling project of

Mr. Sewell and his political friends: but eventually this gentleman went home to England, and after a little patriotic, if not pardonable equivocation, in his evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons – succeeded in inducing the British Parliament to guarantee a New Zealand lean, amounting to £500,000. This was our first loan placed on the London Money Market. It was styled "The Imperial Guaranteed Loan of 1857." As regards this loan, I freely admit its necessity and utility. It was judiciously expended and of great service to the Colony – particularly the northern half of it. This was a General Government loan, and quickly the Provincial Governments began to follow suit, and follow the example set them by the Colonial Government, by borrowing largely on their own account.

The great native war commenced, on the 17th of March, 1860, soon after which our Colonial Government found itself short of money. It only wanted £150,000. So the six per cent. Loan Bill of 1861 for £150,000 was passed, and the proceeds of it were duly expended. Notwithstanding this the war kept expanding, expenditure increasing, and altogether affairs, social and political, looked very threatening in the Northern Island. Money! money! was asked for and wanted. Borrow! borrow more! was the answer of the bold and audacious. The cry was surely responded to on the largest scale for a bill to raise – I hesitate to say how much, for the sum is so large for a Colony so young; enormous for so small a community. Still I must give the figures, and here they are £3,000,000. Three millions sterling was the daring proposal that the General Assembly entertained, and eventually passed into law, firmly believing it to be the last great loan it would be called upon to sanction, or that the public would view with favor. It was then expected by many that the war would soon be ended, and peace and prosperity guaranteed to New Zealand. The Loan was styled – "War Loan of 1863." A man of common

sense, an able and intelligent gentleman – Mr. Wood, the Colonial Treasurer – was sent to England, and arrived in London during the year 1864, at a most unfortunate period, for the money panic of 1866 was looming in the distance. Doubt and distrust pervaded the commercial community, and the war was still going on in New Zealand. The result was that the first and succeeding portions of this loan were raised at a ruinous sacrifice. Nevertheless there was plenty of cash to distribute. There was a little fighting, and a great deal of spending. The Government and their friends hardly knew what to do with millions sterling. A trifle of it was expended in the Waikato district, in paving a road deep with mud, with bags of flour, to make a passable way to a jetty. 7 Mr. Weld was now premier, and at the zenith of his power. He was more chivalrous than prudent. Out of his treasury full of borrowed coin, he made a virtual present of half a million sterling to the Imperial Government, in satisfaction of old and recent claims made by its representatives, There were emigration jobs in London, and reported contract jobbing in Auckland, to which province about 5000 emigrants were sent out; the latter proved a futile and almost useless scheme of emigration. These emigrants were shovelled out of England, Ireland and Scotland, whilst I was in London, and I am acquainted with the objectionable manner in which it was done. Our financial credit was seriously damaged and deranged; our bonds went a begging from one London firm to another, and the proceeds of the war loan were squandered like water. The whole three millions was soon absorbed – swallowed up is a more appropriate term – and there was but little left to show for it, excepting a few miles of road near Auckland, which might have been constructed for a few thousand pounds. Once more New Zealand is greatly in want of money, and it

is deeper in debt than ever. 8 Stagnation in trade is general. What is the next move to raise the monetary wind? It is the year 1867, the war is not yet ended. The Poverty Bay massacre has not yet occurred; but still the financial credit of the Colony is in a precarious state – it is damaged by having so many loans of different denominations, and bearing different rates of interest. The various Provincial Loans have been negotiated in several ways: some bear six per cent, interest, one seven, others eight, and three ten – and their total amount is £1,959,000, with £400,000 not yet issued, and making a grand total of £2,359,000 authorised to be issued. There is a want of uniformity in the various issues, and concurrent with this fact, there is a desire for a homogeneous whole – one loan having a fixed period to run and bearing one rate of interest. There was nothing unreasonable in this style of argument – it meant consolidation of all our loans: but there was something behind. It had other meanings, it also meant the perpetration of a great job, raising the wind again, and securing another loan of over a million sterling for the construction of public works, and paying off certain financial liabilities.

Under the circumstances just narrated, it was decided by an Act passed October 10th, 1867, to raise a loan of seven millions sterling, for the purpose of converting and consolidating all our loans into one five per cent, loan, with a one per cent, sinking fund to be invested in annual drawings. In passing this Act, it was well known (and the result discounted) that the first effects of a Colonial guarantee would be to raise the value of bonds, representing a vast amount of money, to the extent of from ten to twelve per cent. The Bank of New Zealand was expected to make £40,000 by the transaction. The Bank of New Zealand was well represented in the House of Representatives,

and the foreign creditor was to gain immensely, though he had never asked for the gift. What was New Zealand to receive for this foolish liberality? half the profits? It might have been arranged in that way, but it was not. The free gift of, say, about £1,000,000 was for the creditor. The debtor was to receive nothing, but the prospect of his credit in the future being better on the London Stock Exchange, than it had been in the past. Dr. Featherston, in his place in the House, nobly and forcibly denounced this measure as a monstrous fraud on the people of New Zealand. In the next chapter I shall – in the order of time – go more into detail on this particular gross instance of political corruption. Well, the various debts of the Colony were to be consolidated almost entirely in the interest of the Foreign public creditor, and more remotely and vaguely in the interest of the home community in the Colony. The price to be paid for this was enormous. Holders of our bonds afterwards made fabulous fortunes out of them. "In 1867," says the agents for the Crown Colonies, in a recent letter sent to Dr. Featherston while Agent-General in London, "one large financial establishment of London found the terms demanded for a temporary loan on New Zealand, five per cent, debentures – of which they happened to be large holders – so onerous, that they preferred to dispose of £300,000 worth at 40 per cent, discount." The price that may be obtained for these at the present time (1874) is £103. Two years ago they were worth a £100. Now supposing the parties who purchased them at £60 held them till their value was £100 – here was the incredible profit of £120,000 on one single transaction. There can be no doubt about this large sum, or that an amount near it was made, for in the yearafter consolidation, namely 1868, our five per cents, had risen to £98. Our Agent Mr. Fitzherhert was borrowing at £97. A London relative of mine, in 1866, bought, privately, three five per cent. £200 bonds at £73 1/2; they are now worth £103. Yet the donor of these magnificent gifts, poor New

Zealand received nothing out of this one-sided bargain. Granted the necessity of consolidation we paid far too much for it. Consolidated or not consolidated the Colonial securities, i.e. bonds of the General Government, though seriously depreciated in value, before and after the London money panic of 1866, would have recovered their value as did other Foreign and Colonial securities which were at the panic time equally depressed. It was the £1,959,000 worth of Provincial bonds which were the bugbear, for they were unmarketable in consequence of their being unquotable in the daily lists of the Stock Exchange; and well they might be, for the Provinces of Auckland, Wellington and Southland were at this time in a chronic state of bankruptcy. These bonds were purchased at lower rates, as an inferior and less valuable security, and the Colonial Legislature, I think, had no business, by its guarantee, to put them on a par with its own bonds and make them a first-class security – without receiving a money equivalent for so doing. If the holders of Provincial bonds would have exchanged their £100 bonds for others of £94, they would but have done justice to themselves and the Colony, the financial position of the latter being benefited to the extent of £141,540. The Bill, however, as I have said before, passed. New Zealand Colonists felt comfortable in their reflections. The greatest of our loans was thought to be our final one, for at least several years to come. Provincial borrowing was to cease, and this loan was to put us all to rights, and place the Colony on a sound financial footing. We were to pay off old debts and not soon contract new ones. A gentleman was wanted to go to England to negotiate and float the new scheme of borrowing. Mr. Fitzherbert – an experienced and able politician, being Colonial treasurer, was chosen. He went Home, and with the foolishly generous terms he had to offer, and the easy state of the money market, he was pretty sure to be, and was, fairly successful, though only a part (£2,735,550

out of £4,536,350) was consolidated. At the present date (1874) £6,100,000 9 worth ranks as N. Z. Consols. Many holders when they had secured the guarantee, declined to come into the consolidation scheme. Mr. F. also raised a loan of £1,114,000 at £97 – the balance to help to make up the seven millions loan – and returned to the Colony to be presented with £3000 by Parliament, as a reward for his services on this occasion.

After what I have related, some of my readers, I expect, will think that borrowing for the present had come to an end. No such thing. The Colony had now tasted blood; it thirsted for loans. Certain delicate questions had to be adjusted with the Imperial Government. Dr. Featherston and Mr. Dillon Bell (now Sir Dillon Bell) are appointed as commissioners, and appear in London in the year 1870. They both go to Court, and Dr. Featherston takes the lead in negotiations with Her Majesty's Government, and succeeds in securing an Imperial guarantee to a New Zealand loan of one million sterling. Both these gentlemen return to New. Zealand, expecting to find the Colonists jubilant at their success. Not so! a new opinion had taken possession of the Colonial mind. A new prophet had arisen. The coming man had come – in the somewhat short and portly person of Mr. Julius Vogel, a member of the House of Representatives, and of no particular vocation. He had been on the Melbourne Diggings and had migrated to those of Otago. In Otago he was known as the clever Editor of a Newspaper. As a politician he had been passed over, neglected and sneered at. Being very deaf, he was, unfortunately for himself, sometimes at a disadvantage. People were apt to think he lived from hand to mouth, and had no stake in the Colony. When I saw him at the Charing Cross Hotel in 1871, at a close view, I was struck with his peculiar appearance. The hair of his head was of a shining jet-black color, and sleek from a good dressing of pomade;

his complexion was very dark and sallow, in fact as dark as that of a Spaniard: being dressed in a suit of black he appeared dark all over. He presented to me in his tout-ensemble the appearance of a well-to-do, East-end Jew, of Foreign extraction – but I have been told, on good authority, that he is not a Foreign but an English Jew. At this time he was about forty-four years of age. He is a fluent speaker, and seems imperturbable in debate. Sometimes, this may arise from his not hearing what is said. He is facile and lucid in writing Despatches, and being known to be fond of and addicted to games of hazard, he naturally exhibits the same tendencies in his New Zealand polity, or rather financial schemes of polity. En passant, I may here observe that herein lies a danger to all countries, in employing gentlemen who unable to conduct their own private affairs successfully, aspire to the management of public business – perhaps forgetting that prudence and business capacity are as necessary in the one case as in the other.

With a politician such as I have described, and whose mind was imbued with Yankee notions of a go-a-head tendency, what was a million of money the expenditure of which was to extend over five years, at the rate of £200,000 a year? "Do without the Imperial guarantee and borrow ten millions instead," was the counter-proposal of our new-found Financial experimenter. The Assembly was rather startled at his gigantic borrowing idea. However it consented to a loan of five millions, four of which was to be a Colonial loan, and one million – just to oblige the British Government – was to be guaranteed by the Imperial Authorities. This was the loan of 1870 bearing five per cent interest, and subject to a one per cent, sinking fund. True, this was no new or novel proposal, for Mr. Fitzherbert said it was his policy, and Mr. Vogel had stolen it; just as a Tory leader, Mr. Disraeli, was once represented as running away with the clothes (the policy) of the Liberal leader while the latter was bathing.

Ah! Mr. Vogel is the man for New Zealand! mentally ejaculated many New Zealand Colonists, who were only anxious for present advantages, and were wittingly blind to future consequences.

With the tacit, but I believe not with the free and hearty consent of his colleagues, Mr. V. departs for the United States. There lie has an interview with the President of the Republic. He is next seen in London: it is the year 1871: he appears in his carriage; he goes to Court in cocked hat, supplemented with sword and unmentionables; he is semper felix in borrowing; he negotiates a loan of £1,200,000 at an average rate of £95:10: 6 for eaoh £100 debenture;and, lastly, he arranges a complicated contract with John Brogden and Sons, and a few hours after it is signed, he hastens back to the Colony to assist in squabbling over and undoing the very contract he had, apparently, so very seriously entered into on behalf of the New Zealand Government. Notwithstanding this, the announcement – given out in a pompous way – of his having made a great railway contract, with an eminent English firm, and contracted a large loan in London, contributed to his financial prestige throughout the Colony.

Before Mr. Vogel returned to the Colony from his London mission, Dr. Featherston had been appointed Agent General for New Zealand in England, and had taken his departure for London; so when Mr. Vogel again made his appearance in the political arena of Wellington, he must have felt all the more secure in his position, from the absence of an orator and able Statesman, honest and gentlemanly, like the "Doctor," who was likely to prove one of his most formidable political opponents if he had remained in the Colony.

In the year 1872, Dr. Featherston, more successful than his predecessor and rival, Mr. Vogel, raised one million, the second instalment of the five million loan, at the high rate of £100: 10: 5 per hundred pound sterling bond.

The year 1873 dawned on New Zealand, when the fructifying effects of a great loan expenditure had begun to show themselves. Wool – a local product, not a foreign-one like our loans, and therefore of far more consequence than the latter – had risen in value-about thirty-three per cent. Wool, which three years before this time, was worth only about one shilling per lb. in the Colony, was now selling there for one shilling and fourpence: flax had become an important staple article of export: labor (except in Auckland) kept rising and rising, each succeeding month made workmen more exacting and onerous in their demands: laborers for a day's work of eight hours could command from six to eight shillings: a letter from a laborer in Otago appeared in an English newspaper, in which the writer stated, "I have been having eight shillings a day of eight hours, and one shilling and four pence [per hour] for extra hours:" mechanics demanded, and received, from ten to twelve and fifteen shillings for a day's work of the same duration: country mechanics went to their work on horseback, and returned to their homes in the same luxurious style: the shepherd left his sheep, and the ploughman his plough, to share in the great loan harvest, resulting from the great demand and high price of labor. The London Times, in its issue of January 17th, 1873, began a leading article as follows: – "The letter of our New Zealand correspondent, in our yesterday's issue, tells a tale almost too good to be true," &c. The couleur-de-rose Wellington correspondent of the Times, of February 20th, 1873, said, "People we must have – people at any price, * * * the 7000 emigrants of the past year are but a drop in the ocean of our. requirements. * * * There never has been so good a time for working men, ample employment, high wages, cheap food, and land at a low price, on easy terms." Well might the Times in a leader on the letter, I have just been quoting from, say: – "We ask for the thousandth time, why do not people go to this Paradise?"

[New Zealand]. Yet in this very year labor was so plentiful in Auckland, that it was being sent to Wellington to be employed on the Hutt railway. Labor in the South became so scarce, in the estimation of those interested in Mr. Vogel's projects, that with a reckless regard for the future, the Colonial Government telegraphed home to the Agent General, to send out 20,000 emigrants in six months; this was at the rate of 40,000 per annum: it also offered bonuses of from five to ten shillings a head, to persons in the Colony, to induce their friends to come out to New Zealand as emigrants. Higher premiums still were paid by the Agent General to 250 agents in England, Ireland and Scotland, and in addition to assistance and free passages to emigrants themselves, small capitalists were tempted with the offer of "Free grants of land." One hundred coal miners, and fifty tailors, were telegraphed for, as wanted for Otago: the venturesome Superintendent of Otago and his friends, eager for population, recommended a Mrs. Howard, who went Home to secure women from the South of Ireland, and also sent Mr. Adams to select men from the North of England and Scotland. The sensible Superintendent of Canterbury was not to be outdone, so he despatched Mr. Duncan to scour Great Britain for English and Scotch emigrants, male and female.

In the mean time stock owners seemed afraid that the sheep on their runs would remain unshorn, and farmers that the corn in their fields might stand uncut. Maories from the North were sought for to go and shear in the South. Gross Government mismanagement – in forcing on public works throughout the length and breadth of the islands – was everywhere visible during the summer of 1873-4: while, at the same time, in England during the winter of 1873-4, the whole of the owners of the mercantile marines of Great Britain and Ireland were unable to supply ships fast enough, to carry off the clamorous crowds of emigrants of all sorts, sent for by Mr. Vogel, who were waiting

to be conveyed to New Zealand, and to arrive just too late to assist in securing the double harvest of wool and of wheat. They would be there only "the day after the fair;" but what of that? there was money enough to pay for all escapades and mistakes, and still money left to throw into the New Zealand abyss of expenditure. What of this? the Premier had done it, and "nobody dared to complain. Public works was but another name for "Largess!" " Largess!"

At this time so serious had the scarcity of labor become, that a Canterbury newspaper proposed a suspension of public works, until, the harvest operations were completed.

Was there ever such an exciting demand for population? but though population was scarce, money was abundant: there was a scarcity of the former, and a redundancy of the latter. Money – ah! thou God of modern civilization – went a begging: lenders were many, investors few: the Bank of New Zealand 10 held deposits to the enormous amount of three millions sterling down went the rates of discount, till they touched a four and a half and five per cent, rate: four years before this they were eight per cent.: moneylenders were glad to accept five to six per cent, for loans on landed estate, instead of as formerly eight to ten per cent.: a new bank, the National Bank of New Zealand, was started: a mania for the formation of new joint-stock companies sprung up, as those who invested in the New Zealand Shipping Company are likely to remember: so large were the proceeds of the land revenue in Canterbury, that its prudent Provincial Government hardly knew what to do with the money: with – at one period of the year 1873, a cash balance at its bankers' of nearly half a million sterling, and in one month, a revenue from land sales at the rate of almost a million a year – well might the Government, and the good folk of the Province of Canterbury, be sorely perplexed as to how they might expend

so vast a sum to the best public advantage, and also in their joyous excitement, forget that their land goose – now laying them golden eggs as large as those of the moa, – would year by year for the future have fewer eggs to lay, and a few years hence, like their traditional gigantic bird, would become extinct; and thus would vanish fertile and saleable land, one of the principal sources of Canterbury prosperity.

The wildest dreamers could not have dreamt of such a state of uproarious prosperity existing and extending from the sunny lands of the Province of Hawke to the bleak shores of the Bluff – as unfolded itself during the whole of the peaceful and memorable year 1873, and the early part of 1874. On one day no less than forty-seven ships were advertised, in the Times, by three rival Companies, as engaged in the cargo and passenger trade of New Zealand. These prosperous times might be inflated, artificial and fleeting; but still there they were, and no one could fairly deny their existence, or – if they did not wish to to be laughed at – venture to question their permanency, however much they might doubt their continuance.

This extraordinary and flourishing state of affairs seemed to bewilder sensible men, who could see through and who disapproved of Mr. Vogel's schemes, but who in their bewilderment began to doubt the correctness of their own opinions, to feel the instinct of self-interest, and say to themselves, "Perhaps Vogel may be right in his calculations, we may as well take our share – go in for a general scramble of this untold wealth, and share in what some people vulgarly call, 'the plunder.'" A country is never saved by weak-minded sensible people like these. They forget the Roman maxim: – "Venenum in auro bibitur." Well might timid and retiring persons also become puzzled, and, in conjunction with the heedless, thoughtless, property-less and future-less class of society, begin to look up to Mr. Vogel as the wizard, the foreign magician, who had conjured up all this good fortune; whereas they ignored the facts that New

Zealand, like the rest of the Australian Colonies, had begun rapidly to recover from a long period of depression, in the natural order of things, and as the result of those economic laws which regulate the affairs of man in trade, commerce and agriculture, Vogelian schemes to the contrary notwithstanding. In the years 1873-4 New Zealand would have enjoyed solid prosperity, with the aid of the Imperial Guaranteed Loan of £1,000,000, and without Mr. Vogel's gigantic borrowing scheme. The worshippers of this gentleman will surely not venture to attribute the rise in the price of wool to his policy, which rise I venture to assert more than anything else contributed to the prosperity of 1873-4. His contribution to the prosperity I have been remarking on, was his proposal to borrow largely and his success in borrowing. He is, and has been a fortunate borrower. His great claim for credit as a New Zealand Statesman, must rest on the simple, common, ignoble, and contemptible policy of incessant borrowing – reckless borrowing and extravagant expenditure. He entered the London money market, when the way was clear for him and any sort of borrowers – when money was a drug on the Stock Exchange, and so superabundant that poor and despised Tasmania, and the most corrupt and wretched of the South American Republics, could borrow with impunity.

I must pause here to take notice of the N. Z. Parliamentary Session of 1873. At this epoch it was more than ever necessary that caution should be the motto and watchword of the Treasurer of New Zealand, Mr. Vogel; but marked caution was not a characteristic, of the honorable gentleman in question, whose continuance in office depended on his being a continuous and successful borrower, to a degree to satisfy both Colonial and Provincial cravings. The Provinces were amply represented in the Parliament by Superintendents and their followers. To conciliate them with monetary baits – for Provincial use – political bribery was the very politically

immoral expedient to be resorted to, and Mr. Vogel was the man for the occasion, in fact, the "right man in the right place." Before Parliament met, Mrs. Gossip said, "Vogel's all right for the next session, he has squared it all round:" "Vogel has made it all right with the Wellington Members." In the session of 1872, Mr. Stafford and his friends had succeeded in ousting Mr. Vogel and his colleagues from the ministerial benches; but Mr. Stafford having been betrayed by two or three of his own supporters, Mr. Vogel resumed the reins of Government. In the session of 1873, Mr. Stafford declined to attempt to form a party with the sole view of turning out Mr. Vogel and his followers. Up to this period the sober and sensible portion of the public of New Zealand had looked up to Messrs. Stafford, Gillies, Rolleston, Sewell, and a few other gentlemen in both Houses, as the "safe men," whom the Colony could fall back upon in an emergency, when the reckless career of Mr. Vogel, and his thick-and-thin supporters should be checked – if not arrested. This resolution of Mr. Stafford left Mr. Vogel this session master of the position, and in full possession of all the power he could desire or grasp at, or that could be conferred on him by the votes of log-rolling representatives of certain parts of the Colony.

"How did he use his powers?" could be fairly asked. "Of course he did not want to borrow more money when he had had five millions given him to expend and make the railways, &c. in 1870,", might be reasonably said. Well, on the 29th of July, 1873,he made his financial statement. It was a long speech, ably put together, prolix and elaborate, but far from being a lucid statement; for by a constant reference to so many trifling items, and self-congratulations, the effect was marred and the statement confusing: it certainly was a grand display of Mr. Vogel's peculiar fort or talent for "financing" finance. The Treasurer once more did what? Did the mouse produce a mountain? no, but our great Financier once more performed another of

his great feats of statesmanship – he produced a loan bill for a Colonial Loan of £2,750,000, and wanted to allow the Provinces also to borrow over a million, yet almost everybody supposed that Provincial borrowing had been stopped by the Loan Consolidation Act of 1867. The first loan was passed. The latter – thanks to the independence and honesty of a large majority in the Legislative Council – did not pass, for by a majority of 19 to 12, it was thrown out by the Upper House.

The more I think of these times the more I am pained at these statements I feel it my duty to make. Personally speaking, I have not the slightest antipathy to Mr. Vogel. I simply exercise my right, to express my political opinions as a settler, an elector and an Englishman, whose home and country is New Zealand, and whose interests must suffer, whose property must be taxed – along with the properties of thousands of other Colonists – to a grievous if not ruinous extent, to carry out political schemes which he entirely disapproves of – because they are rash and premature. I have nothing to do with what Mr. Vogel was. My business with him is as a public man. He must be judged from what he publicly says and does; by the results of which, eventually, he will stand or fall in the estimation of the public of New Zealand.

Had Mr. V. borrowed in a moderate way, and made short lines of railway near the large towns, where they would be likely to pay, the Colony might have been a gainer by his policy: but he wants to do in five years what ought to be done in twenty-five. He began by a five million loan, knowing well he would require ten millions, even to construct his railways in a hurry and flurry, and in a way – as far as their construction was concerned – so flimsy and scamping, that the most part of them will have to be strengthened, added to, or be built over again, like portions of the monumental railway from Wellington to the Hutt. Had he been practical, instead of

theoretical; had he honestly told and instructed his engineers that they must send in truthful estimates for the proper construction of permanent and substantial lines of railway, the result would have shown, that to accomplish all that had been promised in the way of railways, including those over ranges of hills, a sum of certainly not less than twenty millions sterling would be required to finally complete them.

This policy is a forcing process, a hot-house policy; in short like the frog in the fable, it is an attempt to swell out New Zealand to the proportions of John Bull – i.e. Great Britain. He wants to make New Zealand the Great Britain of the present, instead of the future. I need not remind my readers that it has taken Great Britain eighteen hundred years to be what it is, it has taken many generations to bring the land of England into profitable cultivation, and make it the garden it is, and nearly fifty years to construct her present perfect system of railways. The object of the present Premier of New Zealand, was to commit the Colony to his loan and public-work policy. He has completely succeeded in this tracasserie, and well may this shrewd and clever Israelite be considered the modern golden calf, and be worshipped and feted by thick-and-thin supporters, as if he were a financial genius: still he is more feared than liked, and his continuance in power rests on the unstable basis of his being always able to borrow and able to spend. At the close of the year 1873, matters appeared to culminate, for he had been exalted to the position of Premier, Colonial Treasurer, and Minister of Immigration. He had become a sort of Constitutional Dictator, a political trinity – "tria juncta in uno."

The system of ad valorem duties. introduced by Mr. Vogel during the Session of 1873, a system which he so much lauded, and which he so much required to increase the taxation of the Colony – though he faintly argued it would not do so – was, soon after this alteration of the New Zealand tariff, virtually

abolished by New South Wales, as an unwise and objectionable mode of taxation. The sound reason for these two contrary courses being taken, was that the latter country was getting out of debt while our Colony was sinking deeper into it.

Although Mr. Vogel had muddled the great contract with Messrs. Brogden and Sons, and though his mail contract with Webb had broken down, yet at this time (1873) it was curious to observe (and not difficult to divine the reason) how certain newspapers, which formerly had denounced him and his schemes in vehement language, now flattered him and belauded "his policy," with exaggerated and flatulent praise. Too true it was that Mr. Vogel was a very successful politician; but he was successful in a way that conscientious men would not have liked to succeed in. Any statesman with an overflowing Treasury can govern with success. He successfully manipulated a late Governor 11 of the Colony. He succeeded in manipulating, or rather, "nobbling," certain needy portions of the New Zealand Press, and the Wellington "Independent," became "The New Zealand Times" on the 1st of January, 1874.

Notwithstanding these arrangements for making things "square all round," – and I have more than gossip for my authority, as to their correctness – there were, towards the close of the session of 1872, and at the beginning of the session of 1873, rumours floating in the air, and rumours here, there and everywhere, that all was not "square." It was whispered in the streets; it was talked of in Bellamy's, and no doubt, it was discussed in the Cabinet Councils, that there were still "non-contents," who might be made all right for running in the Vogelian political groove; but these "non-contents," did not want to be sent home on a visit to their friends in Ireland,

nor in England, nor in Scotland, no, nor even in Wales or the Isle of Man – in the position of Special Emigration Agents, little Agent-Generals, even although Mr. Vogel had induced his dear friend Governor Bowen to send home a request to Lord Kimberly to have them presented to the Queen in court frippery. No, these representatives of the People had souls above such political bribing transactions as these. If not land owners themselves, they had territorial friends and needy acquaintances, and neighbours who required something more substantial and costly. They resided in an unimportant part of the Colony, or in an out-of-the-way district where sheep and cattle were the most numerous inhabitants, and where the land being stony, or clayey, or hilly, the country was, from an agricultural point of view, likely to be unproductive, and therefore unlikely to yield much traffic for road or rail. Still they said, "the land of selves and friends wants opening up;" and votes being also wanted – "Give them a railroad!" was the Governmental response which gave these gentlemen satisfaction, made them "contents," and added one more portion to the mountain of debt being piled up in New Zealand.

It is quite correct to say that these proceedings – even from a political point of view (and I must always be understood as speaking in a political sense) – were highly improper, and from a constitutional aspect, demoralising and dangerous, to the common weal of the community at large. It was discouraging to see honor and honesty languishing in the shade, while a few political parasites and unscrupulous adventurers were nourishing in the sunshine of an unhealthy public opinion, at a public cost of thousands a year.

Borrowing had become a disease, affecting the whole body politic – the whole Colonial community; excepting, perhaps, Canterbury, and when the supporters of Provincial borrowing had been foiled in the General Assembly (in the way I have already mentioned) right or wrong, some of them still insisted

on borrowing on Provincial account. The Superintendent of Wellington, in the session of November 1873, wanted the assent of his Council to borrow £175,000. A majority of the members were willing to sanction an advance from the Bank of N.Z. for £50,000 at six per cent, interest; but because this sensible majority – who looked to the future welfare of their constituents, and to the past character of the Provincial Secretary and Treasurer, now two-in-one, who they knew had the talent of Mr. Vogel for public borrowing and spending (other people's) money and a reckless disregard for the future, and those that come after him – declined to sanction borrowing to the extent of £175,000, he, the Superintendent, first told them, that "as the Council has rejected the only measure which it was specially convened to consider, it has in fact disposed of the business of the session, and I accordingly declare the Council to be prorogued;" and then, in mock Cromwellian style, he prorogued it.

I am not unwilling to believe that Mr. Vogel desired, and worked to secure, a permanent state of prosperity for New Zealand, as well as himself; but his grand idea, and his one idea, was borrowing, with the Colony at the back of him to pay dearly for it if he failed. I am not unmindful of the fact that while in office he has exhibited untiring energy in penning state despatches, and state documents pleasant to read, but unsound and unsafe for a young Colony to rely upon. He too often wishes to appear a master of finance, which he is not, except of that sort of gambling finance that so much depends for its success, on what Lord Palmerston termed "afortuitous concourse of atoms," which so seldom occurs that financing of that kind is a miracle of success, when for a time it succeeds; but it too often comes to grief at last. Not content with the settlement effected by the consolidation of our loans under the Loan Act of 1867, which loan had come to be known in the London money market as "New Zealand

Consols;" not satisfied with our five per cent. Four Million Loan of 1870, he has now (1874) introduced a new description of loan, known in the London market as the New Zealand Four-and-a-half per cent. 5-30 debentures for £500,000. These securities are redeemable in five or thirty years, and have no sinking fund applied to them.

Prior to this, Mr. Vogel's London Agents had offered, on the 11th of July, 1873, £200,000 worth of the Imperial guaranteed bonds, at £105 for each, £100 four per cent, bond; but, only £103: 10 each being tendered for them, no allotment took place. During the same month, and on the 31st, the same Agents – the Agents of the Crown Colonies, conjoined with Dr. Featherston – invited tenders for half a million of the unguaranteed five per cent, bonds of the Four Million Loan. These were eagerly and largely competed for, and were disposed of at £102: 10. the highest price yet obtained for this class of securities. Next came Mr. Vogel's new financial feat, his Four-and-a-half per cents, alluded to above.

In January, 1874, half a million's worth of these debentures were offered at £98 for each £100: but only £370,000 was subscribed for on the application day; however, the balance was afterwards taken up: still this financial operation, or rather Mr. Vogel's financial tinkering, may be considered to have received a slight check – if anything could check our New Zealand financier's incorrigible propensity to borrow. Borrow from Savings Banks: borrow from Life Insurance Funds: borrow from sacred Trust Funds: borrow in New Zealand: borrow in Australia: borrow of the Bank of New Zealand: borrow from the Bank of England: borrow publicly and privately, and borrow at home or abroad, is, and has been, the maxim and the practice of this Prince of Perpetual Borrowers.

I think that I may venture to say that the loan credit of New Zealand has reached its maximum. I would timidly

suggest that by the time the next General Assembly meets, in 1874, the debts of the Colony, Provincial and General, will have reached the alarming figures of £11,500,000; and I may further state my belief, that if all liabilities – all monies owing, Colonial and Provincial, were brought to account, at that time, the total public debt of the Colony would reach the formidable sum of £12,000,000 sterling, although, Mr. Vogel in his financial statement of 1873 owned only to a total debt of £9,622,104: 18: 8. Mr. Vogel's Budgets deal largely and diffusely in figures: I fear they must be termed mysterious and incomprehensible to ordinary mortals like myself. An old friend of mine, and one of the most experienced and shrewd Bank Managers in New Zealand, lately told me that he took home one of Mr. Vogel's recent financial statements, and found that, after studying it the whole of the evening, he could not understand it; and when, soon after, he happened to be in Wellington, he mentioned this circumstance to a high financial officer in Mr. Vogel's Government, that gentleman remarked, "You would have been a cleverer fellow than I take you to be, if you had understood it." The honorable gentleman in question – Mr. V. – has a bad habit of ignoring future financial liabilities. Only two days after he made his financial statement of 1873 – namely, on the 31st of July, as I have before stated – his agents in London had floated another New Zealand loan of half-a-million sterling, which, three days after his financial statement, made the indebtedness of the Colony £10,122,104, instead of £9,622,104, as he had stated. Of the raising of this half-million he would be advised by cablegram, in from ten to twenty days. It is true he has so many things to do, he may forget to mention some things which the public ought to know. His Government is quite parental, and his genius versatile; the latter extends to the conserving of trees in the forest, as well as to establishing newspapers (Vogel's trumpeters). By-the-bye, instead of stating that "theIndependent

became the New Zealand Times on the 1st of January, 1874," I ought to have said, at page 141 – "and the Independent announced itself to become the New Zealand Times, on the 1st of January, 1874 – but a hitch occurred."

Borrowing from so many different sources is well calculated to keep us in the dark, as to the real amount of the public debt at any one particular period, added to which the public forget that our present Colonial Treasurer is not the sort of person to remind them, that the two-per-centum per annum sinking fund of the Imperial guaranteed loan of £1,000,000, is shortly about to add its weight to the burdens of the Colony in the shape of the small sum – speaking the language of spendthrift politicians – of twenty thousand pounds sterling a year. 12

This liability applies to the future; but as regards the obligations already incurred on account of our public debts, I am afraid they are not fully understood.

Many of my fellow-Colonists imagine, that as a one per cent sinking fund is yearly applied to the purchase and cancellation of a portion of our Consolidated debt, the annual charge for interest and sinking fund, becomes less and less in each succeeding year, yet how few know the occult and abstruse working of the cumulative one per cent, sinking fund.

I will endeavour to explain ,it. The amount first proposed to be consolidated in the year 1868, was £4,536,350. Of this sum £2,735,550 was exchanged for new stock, representing a total of £2,987,000. The first year's fixed charge for interest and sinking fund on the latter sum was estimated at £179,220. Five per cent, for interest on this would be £149,350; and one per cent, as a sinking fund would amount to £29,870. –

total £179,220. Now, as by means of the second sum, bonds to the amount of £29,870 would be cancelled – the unitiated might fairly conclude, that, as we had reduced the debt in question by £29,870 there would be no future interest or sinking fund required to be paid on that sum: but this would be an erroneous opinion, for by a pure and simple sinking fund of one per cent., it would take a century – a whole hundred years, to liquidate the debt in question; whereas it is to be extinguished at probable periods of thirty-six, thirty-six and a half or thirty-seven years. This extinction is accomplished by continuing the first annual payment of £179,220 year after year for a full period of, say, thirty-seven years. The balance of such sum, after paying the annual five per cent, interest, being invested in the purchase of the bonds of this loan at the annual lottery drawings fixed to take place in March of each year of the thirty-seven named as the period at the expiration of which the whole debt is calculated to be extinguished.

If our present New Zealand Consols represent a debt of £8,000,000, we shall have to go on paying £480,000 per annum for a period of thirty-seven years – for interest and sinking fund. Of course the period of thirty-seven years is shortened in the case of amounts consolidated in 1868-69-70, or of sums borrowed at an earlier date than the present.

Above I have assumed that the debts represented by our New Zealand five-per-cent. Consols amount to eight millions sterling; but from an official and therefore reliable source, I know that the Financial Agents of the Colony will have to pay in London on the 15th of April next – for the one-percent, sinking fund alone – the sum of £84,900. From this it would appear that the debt in question amounts to £8,490,000, requiring this year, (1874) for interest a payment of £424,500, and a sum, for sinking fund, of £84,900, together making the formidable annual charge of £509,400 for one denomination of our public debts, that certainly the largest; but the

remaining Colonial and Provincial debts cannot, by any means, be called insignificant, and for which – as well as the New Zealand Consols – the whole Colony is liable. Mr. Vogel in attempting to separate Colonial from Provincial indebtedness, in order to make the former appear much smaller, must consider us Colonists as mere children in politics. No such sophistry will make our public foreign debts one farthing less or their burthen any the lighter.

I do not pretend to more knowledge or to have access to more public papers, than most other people; nor have I influence enough with the present Government to procure access to the State, or rather, Colonial documents, deposited, with the rest of our Colonial archives, in the City of Wellington. Yet I fancy that I see sufficient, and know enough to convince me that our Colonial debt is increasing, with an alarming rapidity; that it is gaining on us and pursuing us, and that numbers of - intelligent New Zealand settlers know the fact but will not own to it; and that these are therefore to be likened to the poor ostrich which, when hunted, buries its head in the sand foolishly believing its pursuers cannot see it. Let Mr. Vogel's commitments of the Colony for expenditure continue on the scale he announced in the session of 1873, and his methods of spending the proceeds of loans continue as wasteful as they now are, and – in the course of four or five years hence, the debts, Provincial and Colonial, are likely to be not less than seventeen millions sterling.

At present, all goes on smoothly. High prices for every thing. Loans, when the Government like to ask for them. Good appointments for certain political gentry – some of whom, have ability but no character; others who have character but no ability. Immigrants – the "keystones," of "Mr. Vogel's policy" – arriving, and expected to arrive at the rate of about 3000 a month or say 36,000 a year.

How – when public works begin to fall off – this great and

new population, these legions of Emigrants without capital – are to take up their permanent abode in the Colony, will be the difficult problem to solve.

"Settle the people on the land," will be the universal cry: but this is really a more difficult matter than townspeople imagine. Auckland tried it and failed. The fact is, that to cultivate land on a small scale profitably, requires the small cultivator to be placed on fertile land, to be near a good market, to be physically strong, to be steady, to have some capital, or a little income from wages or other sources, and even with these advantages he must work hard in all weathers, be thrifty and patient under the trying ordeal of unfavourable seasons – then, his land once under a proper cultivation, he will find himself comfortable, independent, and charmed with being an owner of freehold land. Bringing a new and hilly country like New Zealand – with vast tracts of inferior land, intermingled with small tracts of fertile soil – under extensive and everywhere wide spread cultivation, is a work of ages, not years.

It is far easier to make lines of railways, than to establish districts of well cultivated farms. I know how I and some of my friends – to our bitter experience – have failed, and lost money in attempting to cultivate too much ordinary land, at once. Cultivation of the land must be done bit by bit, slowly and systematically, or what you do will have to be done over again, and the fields once apparently laid down in grass, will have to be re-ploughed, and properly cropped, and grassed to secure permanent pasture. Farming, requires encouragement; but not "protection," and nothing is more likely to create discouragement, and impede cultivation than the excessive taxation which now threatens it. The fortunes that have been, and are being made in New Zealand, have hardly ever been made by farmers, in cultivating the land: they have been realised from wool, gold, trading and speculations. In no other country is it more necessary than in New Zealand, that –

"He who by the plough would thrive
Himself the plough must hold or drive."

It is unwise, nay, more, it is foolish, to conceal these facts; the opinions just expressed are founded on them: were it otherwise, they would be unworthy of consideration; for opinions not based on facts are valueless.

It sometimes occurrs to me, that certain events are likely to occur in the future, from the existence of certain circumstances in the present. I am no prophet. Prophecies are dangerous things to make, for events, now-a-days, mature and circumstances change so rapidly, that predictions often become falsified. Judging from occurrences, I can only say what ought to happen, or what is probable. I therefore say, that if extraordinary events happen, and they should prove favourable to Mr. Vogel's schemes, his policy may prove a sort of success; but I contend that practical statesmen, and ordinary prudent mortals should frame their calculations to meet ordinary circumstances. A man who for a frolic – or from any motive whatever, – plunges into deep water though unable to swim, yet is saved from drowning, must be set down as more fortunate than wise; more foolish than prudent. As regards the results of Mr. Vogel's policy, it does appear to me probable that we shall see thousands of emigrants landed in the Colony during the depth and at the close of the winter of 1874, and that there may not be plenty of work and high wages for them: in that case it is probable that numbers may leave for Melbourne or Sidney, and many of the remainder will be discontented. There may even be such unpleasant incidents, as meetings of "unemployed." It may also occur to Mr. Vogel, or his political Assistants to throw the blame of such untoward events, on the Agent General, by saying: – "He has sent out the wrong sort of emigrants; the selection of them was bad."

Let that be as it may, and even if we have no Maori distur-

bances, another more serious state of affairs is probable. I think it is certain that Mr. Vogel will show a handsome surplus of income over expenditure for the year 1874, as the result of the 10 per cent, duties, and the enormous importations of duty-paying goods; and, as an inflated prosperity based on borrowed money does not collapse suddenly, while borrowing can be successfully accomplished – he may also show an apparent balancing of expenditure and income, for the financial year 1875, which may be held as simply to indicate, and as preparing the way for a declining state of the revenue, or rather for a certain want of elasticity in the revenue, absolutely required to meet the pressing, increasing, and unnatural calls for payments on account of interest on Foreign loans.

Now, from this serious complexion of affairs, it appears to me – though I have every faith in the future of New Zealand – that in a year or two from this time, when the loanable capital of the Colony has become scarcer and the rates of interest higher; when the present excessive imports shall have been paid for, and the money remitted home; when the chances of a money panic and dear money in London becomes greater, and when wool is lower in price than it is now, a pressure on our monetary resources will be severely felt; and I venture to think that it will go on increasing (if not arrested by the dismissal of Mr. Vogel, and his Colleagues) until there is produced such a culmination of financial liabilities – if they are honestly brought to account, at the end of the year 1878 as will show the Provincial and Colonial indebtedness, to amount to something like seventeen millions sterling, requiring nearly one million sterling per annum, for the payment of interest and sinking funds. When matters are at this pass, there will be quite sufficient to create serious govermental embarrassment, and financial disturbance – perhaps even a panic.

It may be correctly said that we shall have great railway

assets to fall back upon. I fear that out of 767 miles of railways proposed to be made, there will be some of which we shall not be proud, – some, which we shall not take at all kindly to. There may be some "white elephants," among them – for we shall then have railways finished and unfinished, some, here and there, in working order and paying a profit, others dilapidated, and wanting repair if not reconstruction. Can we call these, as a whole, profitable assets, and a fair set-off against millions of money expended on their construction? I hope we may, then I will gladly say "Mr. Vogel was right, and I – in my estimate of results – was wrong."

After all, the great question to be determined is this: – Will the Colony in the year 1878 when the European population will probably amount to, say 375,000 souls, that is, 375,000 men, women and children, be able to easily bear an outward yearly drain on its financial resources, of nearly one million of money? Will not the taxation required to meet this foreign demand, and also the ordinary cost and expenses of the Colony, and Provincial Governments, be most exhaustive and oppressive?

It must be remembered that our Colonial debt is not like the National debts of England and France, where the vast bulk of the interest on such debts, is paid to residents in these two countries, and by this means the money is naturally expended or re-invested in the country by which it has been borrowed.

In other words, I repeat again, can New Zealand – four or five years hence – afford to send out of the Colony nine or ten hundred thousand sovereigns per annum, to fructify abroad? And may not the bona fide settlers in New Zealand feel this monster burden of taxation, laid upon them and their children by Mr. Julius Vogel and his supporters – as very onerous and very frightful if not unbearable? It will be but a poor consolation to them to be members of the "Premier Colony" for indebtedness, and in possession of the unenviable credit of being

the heaviest taxed community on the face of the globe. Is Mr. Vogel to be made Sir Julius for this? or shall he receive the censure and disgrace due to a Political Adventurer who brings discredit and trouble to the colony that has given him a home and a position? These two questions I leave to the decision of time and to a renovated public opinion in New Zealand, based on that famous English characteristic known as – common sense.

I may here state, that since writing this chapter I have revised it by expunging several passages as premature for publication; I have also introduced some new matter, and made several corrections – rendered necessary by the receipt of more recent information from the Colony, and from my having had access to important papers in London. I have now arranged and printed the chapter in question, in the form of a pamphlet of forty-eight pages, with the hope and the object of its being published in New Zealand, and its authorship – for a while at least – not easily detected.

6 Switzerland is almost in this fortunate position. In 1871, with a population of 2,699,147, her debt was only £855,866.

7 Capt. Turner told me this, and justified the act from a military point of view.

8 £1,000,000 of the first issue of the Three Million War Loan was a five per cent, loan: £500,000 (paid to the Imperial Government, and guaranteed by it) was a four per cent, loan: £1,500,000 was raised by five instalments, bearing 6 per cent, interest. Total, £3,000,000.

9 Times daily List, January, 1874.

10 See balance-sheet, September 30th, 1873.

11 See remarks made in the House of Eepresentatives, during the Session of 1873, respecting certain bills paid on account of Governor Bowen. Will some one tell me who recommended Mr. Vogel to be knighted?

12 This Imperial act was passed in the year 1870. It provides that, as soon as the whole of the £1,000,000 is raised, the two per cent, sinking fund shall come into operation; and if it is not all raised in ten years, still the sinking is to he applied at the expiration of that period – i. e. in 1880.

CHAPTER XII. LOAN CONSOLIDATION...

CHAPTER XII.

LOAN CONSOLIDATION – BANK OF NEW ZEALAND AND THE AUCKLAND LOAN – DITTO AND AN OTAGO LOAN – A COLONIAL GUARANTEE AND ITS EFFECTS – AN ALTERCATION – MR. W. FITZHERBERT LEAVES FOR ENGLAND AS LOAN AGENT – EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS TO ME.

SUBSEQUENT to most of the events narrated in Chapter XI. a scheme was broached for consolidating all the loans of the general and Provincial Governments into one great five per cent. loan. This question came under practical discussion in the House of Representatives during the session of 1867. On one side (of which Dr. Featherston was the leader, and I one of the outside supporters) it was argued that the Colony should derive a monetary advantage, in consideration of its giving its guarantee to the various Provincial Loans, which at this period were not permitted to be quoted in the daily official lists of the London Stock Exchange, and were consequently at a great discount and much below par value. This was the case with the Auckland six per cent, loan of half a million which had been taken up by the Bank of New Zealand at about par (I think in the year 1864); and the Directors, with Mr. Kennedy as the head Manager of that Institution, had by a fluke succeeded in placing £100,000 of it on the London market at a small profit to themselves. The investors in this fifth portion of the loan, thought it to be part of a Colonial loan for which a quotation in the daily lists would be obtained. To their chagrin they soon found out their mistake,

and that they had purchased a Provincial and therefore a security of inferior value. The result to the Bank of New Zealand was equally disastrous, for nearly £400,000 worth of their bonds remained unsold, and in the hands of the Bank; their value being nominal, or about £90 for each £100 bond. The shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand were therefore naturally in favor of a scheme of consolidation which would prevent them from losing, by the debentures in question, about £40,000 in hard cash.

The same financial establishment having made large advances to the Provincial Government of Otago received orders to dispose of £500,000 worth of debentures authorized to be raised under the "Otago Loan Act 1862." This they did at various times. One parcel of these securities, representing a sum of £112,000, was sold, I know, at the ruinous rate of £75 for each £100 debenture.

During the year 1865 they offered the balance, £300,000 worth of this loan, for competition, at a minimum price of £90, with but poor success: it was not taken up, but was afterwards, in 1866, finally disposed of, – the average rate obtained for the whole half million being the low figure of £80: 15: 2 for each £100 debenture. 13

At the time I am speaking of (1867) it was foreseen that a Colonial guarantee would send the depressed Provincial bonds up to par, or nearly so, and leave the holders of them the choice of exchanging them for consolidated five per cents, or not, as they might see fit – the guarantee of the Colony being as good in one case as in the other.

The terms afterwards offered to induce conversion, were £13: 10 for each £100 six per cent. General Government bond redeemable in 1891, and £9 for six per cent. Provincial debentures.

Thus an investor in one £100 Provincial bond, for which he might have only paid a Provincial Government £75 (perhaps £80: 15: 2, the average price of the Otago bonds), was offered £109 if he would convert it into a more valuable security – but bearing only five per cent, interest; the principal having to be repaid at the end of thirty-six years, by means of a one-per cent, cumulative sinking fund invested in annual drawings.

I am and always have been a holder of a considerable number of shares in the Bank of New Zealand; still this has not prevented, nor will it prevent me from criticising adversely any of its proceedings which I know to be unfair, of a jobbing nature and unworthy of a great financial institution.

The Chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, Mr. T. Russell, a bold and speculative man, told me in Wellington he could on behalf of the Bank agree to give the Government five per cent, to secure its guarantee. Why this was not carried out I cannot understand.

It was well known that an unconditional Colonial guarantee of payment of principal and interest, would add great value to the neglected and depreciated Provincial bonds, send them up to par, and replenish the coffers of the Bank of New Zealand, as well as fill the pockets and bosoms of astonished London bondholders and speculators, with cash for the first, and delight for the second; while the Colony of New Zealand which conferred this estimable, but unappreciated and unpaid-for profitable boon, would receive no correlative financial advantage from this one-sided arrangement; the ultimate result of which was, as I saw in ths London Times of April 10th, 1873, that these very guaranteed five per cent, bonds were quoted as sold at £104 1/4.

On the other side, it was plainly said, that, whether the Colony guaranteed the Provincial bonds or not, if the Provincial Government failed to pay either principal or interest on their public debts – the General Government would have to step in and do it for them; therefore a Colonial guarantee

should be extended to the Provincial indebtedness represented by these loans, and be given unconditionally.

The simple answer to this was, the public creditors who held Provincial securities knew that they had no legal claim on the Government of the Colony, if the Provinces made default in the payment of interest or principal of these bonds: moreover their being an inferior security was proved by their lower price, and from their not being quoted in the daily lists of the Stock Exchange.

It must, I think, be admitted that at this period (1867) the laxity and unscrupulosity in financial considerations in the N.Z. Parliament, together with the subsequent considerable, if not complete success of the consolidated loan scheme was but the beginning of a disreputable state of affairs (that I have more particularly alluded to at Chapter XI.), which led up to the adoption of a system of reckless borrowing, represented by, and culminating in, Mr. Julius Vogel's gigantic loan schemes, and followed by wasteful expenditure which is likely to be continuous, and which cannot now be stopped till its ruinous financial results are fully developed during the next three or four years that loom in the distance.

It is due to Dr. Featherston to say – though he was imprudent in public borrowing himself – that he vigorously denounced the consolidation scheme, with an unconditional guarantee, as most dishonest to the Colony. During the discussion of this subject in the session of 1867, he said: "I say for the last time I protest against this Bill, as committing a robbery, for it is nothing more or less – as robbing the Colony of two three or four hundred thousand pounds – as committing upon it a gross fraud and a gigantic swindle."

Notwithstanding this, and the attribution of corrupt motives to certain members, it passed into law, even though at first opposed by the Ministry of the day (particularly the Colonial Treasurer, Mr. Fitzherbert), but who at

the last moment gave this discreditable scheme their support. At the time the Act was before the House, it excited great public interest and attention. Strong language was uttered in debate, and in the midst of conviviality in the refreshment-room – bitter expressions found utterance even between two gentlemen who had long been friends, privately and publicly. The one was in office as Treasurer: the other was on the opposition benches, and an opponent to the Act.

The former was Mr. Fitzherbert; the latter Dr. Featherston. The altercation in question occurred in the refreshment-room of the House. High words, angry and offensive, passed between these two gentlemen – these two old friends. Next morning Dr. Featherston, at his office, handed me a letter he just received from Mr. Fitzherbert, asking for an apology for the opprobrious words used by the former. Dr. Featherston, believing himself to be in the wrong, at once assented to the request of the writer, and thus a reconciliation was effected – at the last moment, and just on the eve of the departure of the Hon. the Colonial Treasurer, W. Fitzherbert, on a mission to England, to consolidate old loans and raise £1,114,000 as a new one; but not in time to prevent some friends of the latter from attending a dinner given to him on the 6th of December, prior to his leaving, but at which only thirty-six persons were present. Before the dinner Mr. Fitzherbert came to me and – as he had heard that I was not going to be present – asked me to attend it. On account of our old friendship I told him, if it had been simply a dinner given him by his old personal friends, I should have liked to have done so; but as my presence at the public dinner might be construed into an approval of the mode of consolidation of our loan, which he was going home to carry out, I felt that I must reluctantly decline going.

However, on the 8th – on a Sunday – I went on board the steamer "Rakai," bade him a hearty good-bye, and as he asked

me to write to him once a month, I promised to correspond with him. Just before leaving the ship he informed me that he was – while away from Wellington – to be paid four guineas a day for travelling expenses, and to be allowed his salary, as a Minister, of £1000 a year. The following are extracts from some of his letters.

His first letter began as follows: –

"21, Cockspur Street,
"Trafalgar Square,
"London.
"June 1st, 1868.

"MY DEAR CARTER,

"I have not received any letter from you by either of the last mails; but I dare say you have been busy, and although I have been busy and ill too, during the last three weeks, yet, as I am recovered now, * * * and as I promised I would write to you whenever I could, I am unwilling to let the mail go without a word * * * Hitherto, everything I have undertaken in this country has turned out a success * * * I have succeeded in establishing a favorable influence at the Colonial Office, where I am invariably received with marked attention * * * in the City, I am regarded with confidence, and my scheme [consolidation of loan] regarded as a marked success. The credit of New Zealand in this market, is now higher than it ever stood before * * * How far the Colony will endorse this favorable opinion, is altogether another question. I admit, I ought to know something by this time of the 'envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness' which pursues Colonial men, for party purposes, and ends generally by disgusting the best men, and compelling them to withdraw their services from the public, and I do not suppose that I can expect to be an exception to the general rule.

"Believe me,
"Yours sincerely,
"WILLIAM FITZHERBERT."

His next letter was dated from: –

"Oxford and Cambridge Club,
"Pall Mall, London,
"1st April, 1868.

"MY DEAR CARTER,

"Many thanks for your letter: I hope you will write to me frequently and give me all the gossip, and also the benefit of your remarks, for I can assure you that I value them particularly. You will be glad to hear that I have succeeded in inducing the Home Government to withdraw all their claims against us. As these amounted to several hundred thousand pounds – nearly, in fact, to three-quarters of a million sterling, I think you will agree with me, this is no small cause of congratulation * * * the concession has been graciously made. I did not forget what was due to the Colony, and I declined to sue for that which I plainly said the Colony regarded as a right. I did not cringe or was obsequious, as, I am afraid, poor Wood was sometimes; neither did I bounce, like poor Wood did, and so get snubbed, but I stood my ground firmly; but with imperturbable patience * * * You will thus see what I have done, and what difficulties I have overcome. Now the task of dealing with the Crown Agents, Exchange, and launching the seven-million loan is before me.

"Possibly (for it is the fate of the absent) I shall be abused, and my work made light of, and the Independent, (whose people owe me no end of good-will,) probably will lead the attack against me. However, depend upon it, Carter, that I have achieved great things already, and in a style that has been appreciated and has commanded respect for the Colony. I have been expecting to hear from you about the Railway [to the Wairarapa] as you wrote [about]. I believe I could do you good: I have made a great number of friends.

"Yours very sincerely,
"WILLIAM FITZHERBERT."

The third letter I received from him consisted of twenty-four pages of note paper: it was dated from London, August 31st, 1868, and commenced as follows: –

"I have received your letter of the 8th of July, and hasten to reply. I thank you for remembering me and backing me up, and writing the article you refer to in the [Wellington Advertiser] Daily Times * * * . Nothing is a truer act of kindness than protecting an absent friend, and saying a word to back him up when he is not present to defend himself. When a man is on the spot he can defend himself; but cowards always attack a man behind his back – like curs: lukewarm friends stand still and quietly enjoy the attack, while they look on and make no sign * * * I want support, and, though I say it myself, I know I deserve it, and have accomplished great things for the Colony."

I may here observe that my friend appeared to me to take an extreme view of the services he rendered the Colony on this occasion, and of the Colonial criticisms he was consequently subjected to – yet his remarks on the abuse a public man receives when he is absent, are as true as they are appropriate. When my friend returned to the Colony all went well with him, and, as I have before stated, the House of Representatives voted him £3000 for his services. His opponents may say that it was not given in a very generous manner (inasmuch as many of the members declined to vote for or against it), nevertheless, it passed in the usual way. The letter I have been referring to goes on to say, that after having been on the Continent with his wife and daughter for about three weeks: – "I rushed back to London on the 27th [August] * * * the 27th was the last day allowed for receiving offers to exchange 7, 8, and 10 per cent. Provincial debentures * * * . There have been only £145,000 [worth offered for] exchange – on the terms proposed – out of £500,000 [advertised]; the fact was I was in too great a hurry, which is a great mistake in these kind of operations; but I was so anxious to have everything finished so that I might get away by the mail of the 2nd of November, that I chanced it." After this he had to remain longer, as he said, to "see it out to the end."

His last sixteen-page letter to me, of 1st October, 1868, was less statistical and more descriptive and interesting. Speaking of his having been ill he said: –

"I have suffered from more severe and more repeated attacks of gout than I have ever experienced, and it is not that I live a sedentary or luxurious life. I take a great deal of exercise [on horseback] * * * and as to medicine, I have taken a small chestful. I cannot say so much about smoking. I smoke from morning to night, I can't do without it. You must know now that it has become a respectable fashion; the smokers have carried the day and this very day (1st of October) all railway trains [companies] are compelled to provide carriages for smokers. You used to be obliged to do your smoking by stealth: now, it is declared respectable * * * They are squabbling all over the country. I believe there is an awful amount of hypocrisy on both sides. One side hates democracy as much as the other; but all bid for, and are drifting towards it; but both in their hearts equally detesting the thing. It is a poor spectacle."

Speaking of Dr. Featherston – who about this time was offering serious opposition to Mr. Fitzherbert's colleagues, in the House of Assembly in Wellington – he remarks: –

"I am sorry to hear [from you] that the Doctor is ill. He is a wonderful man, for it does not seem to affect his attempts to upset the coach [the Ministry], as old Gibbon Wakefield used to say [said when he heard Dr. Featherston make a speech at his first election for superintendent], holding up his hands with astonishment – "There is nothing the matter with that man's lungs!"

This closes my extracts from letters from Mr. Fitzherbert to myself. He is now (1874) Superintendent of the Province of Wellington and pushing it ahead with borrowed money. In the year 1858 he was a staunch and ultra Provincialist. In 1868 he was a mild Centralist. In 1874 he is now a revived Provincialist. I cannot follow him, and yet in changing with the times – if he changed from conviction and not interest – he is right.

13 I obtained these figures from the branch establishment of the Bank of New Zealand, in London, in the year 1872.

CHAPTER XIII. A TRIAL IN THE SUPREME COURT AND ITS RESULTS...

CHAPTEE XIII.

A TRIAL IN THE SUPREME COURT AND ITS RESULTS – THE SLIP QUESTION – MY SERVICES IN ENGLAND, BEFORE THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL – A VOTE PROPOSED AND HOW IT WAS DEALT WITH.

SHORTLY after my return from England to Wellington, I, one day on Wellington Terrace, met Mr. Stafford, then Colonial Secretary. After the usual greetings he began talking about the Slip affair and Mr. H. Kennard; and concluded by remarking that, "Any one could see he (Mr. K.) was no gentleman." In fact, before this, I had found out that Mr. K's character, for greed of money, unreasonableness and untruthfulness, had been found out in Wellington. It appeared to me that his sole object was to get his own sway, shirk the responsibilities of his contracts, and make large profits with little trouble. He wriggled out of erecting the Wanganui Bridge; he refused to erect the Patent Slip, and he resorted to litigation to recover from the Provincial Government the sum of £7,757: 19: 2 – a made-up claim for extras to the wharf. Besides this he capped this claim with another for damages – a nominal claim for just £20,000.

The great trial, Kennard versus Featherston, commenced on the 5th March, 1868. I was examined as a witness – a character I had always a great repugnance to – preferring sometimes, to lose a case rather than be a witness to gain it. On.

this occasion at first I felt nervous, and, as I was afterwards told, looked white in the face. I have felt the same before in rising to make a speech of importance, and even, as I recollect now, when signing the Parliamentary roll, when I first took my seat in the House of Representatives in Auckland, I experienced a trembling sensation. I never could quite overcome this constitutional nervous defect. Once or twice, I have noticed it in Doctor Featherston, for when about to read his speech to the Provincial Council, when it was in the height of its power, I observed his face to blanch, and his hand to shake as he held and just began to read his speech. The trial continued for four days, at the end of which, when the proceedings on both sides had been concluded, and the case was about to be submitted to the jury, the solicitor of Messrs. Kennard – seeing that the verdict of the jury was likely to be very unfavourable to them, proposed a compromise, when after some objection and alteration by the defendant, Dr. Featherston, it was finally arranged that all claims for damages should be withdrawn: and that the claim for extras £7,757: 19: 2 should be given up, and £2000 deducted from the balance due to Kennard on account of the contract – so that the Provincial Government might complete the Wharf themselves.

The Wharf question being now decided by a court of law against Mr. Kennard, I devoted my energies to procuring an amicable settlement of the Slip question, I had been so much mixed up with. After much tedious negotiation this was accomplished by means of an intermediary named Mr. Owen, a young but respectable merchant in Wellington, who, as Kennard had asserted he never would erect the Slip, consented – sub rosa Kennard, but ostensibly with the Provincial Government – and with the sanction of Messrs. Kennard's agent in Wellington – to contract for the erection of the Slip. The contract was duly executed and accepted by the Superintendent on behalf of the Province, and I rejoiced to believe the matter

settled. But when the contract was brought before the Provincial Council, for its sanction and approval, it met with powerful opposition from an unexpected quarter. The result was, the Council refused to ratify it. That before the question went before the Council, the public considered this Slip dispute settled may be gathered from the Wellington Evening Post, which on the 11th April, 1868, contained the accompanying extract.

"At last, after many months – we might say years – of delay, perplexity, uncertainty, and loss to all parties concerned, the great Patent Slip question has been settled, and the 9th of April, 1868, the date upon which the deeds in connection with this important undertaking were 'signed, sealed, and delivered,' will become a 'red-letter day' in the annals of the Province of Wellington. To the gentlemen who have so successfully brought about this much-wished for consummation – amongst whom we hear spoken of, on the side of the Government, Mr. J. Dransfield and Mr. C. R. Carter – are due the best wishes of the community, and we are sure all will feel grateful to them for having by their exertions conferred on this colony, province, and city, a much required and inestimable boon."

Once more the Slip question was an imbroglio and threatened to remain so en permanence. I considered that I had done all that I could fairly be asked to do, to effect a settlement of the matters in dispute. The subject became a dormant dispute. The years between 1868 and 1872 passed away without little or anything being done in earnest: huge masses of timber and iron lay in Evans Bay, the one rotting and the other rusting away. At last the Messrs. Kennard agreed to take shares in a company to the extent of the value they put upon their plant and material on the ground, and in 1872, the erection of the Slip commenced, was continued and is now, 1874, satisfactorily completed. I may add that the Slip has

been erected on a site in the Bay, about 300 yards from the original one, and on just the description of ground that Mr. Kennard wrongly asserted was promised him. Soon after my return to Wellington I noticed this site, consisting of a flat of land at the foot of a hill, and with a rock foundation extending down to below low-water mark, and I wondered, if Mr. Kennard had been inclined to act fairly and put up with unforeseen difficulties which other contractors, myself included, have had to do – why he did not erect the Slip at once on such an admirable site, the more so as his only difficulty was removing his material some 300 yards to the new site, the expense of which, I believe, the Provincial Government would willingly have borne. I have given, and perhaps wearied my readers with these particulars, to show what difficulties may be avoided, and loss of time and money saved, if obstinacy and litigation can be avoided.

Up to this time I had received no payment for the services I had rendered in England in connection with Slip, Wharf, and Wanganui Bridge. But on the 18th of June, 1868, a committee of Members of the Provincial Council was appointed to consider my case, and the sum of £500 being placed on the estimates as some remuneration for the services in question, they reported favourably on the same. The matter came again before the Council when the Estimates were before it, when it was proposed that "The sum of £500 be voted to Mr. Carter," which was carried – without a dissentient voice; this was the more remarkable as I had still several old political opponents in the Council. One of the members, the Chairman of Committees, afterwards informed me that I might think the vote very complimentary to myself, as not a word was said against it or me: whereas a vote of £500 had been refused to Mr. Buller for services in the purchase of the Manwatu block of land, and an attempt was made to cut down the Superintendent's salary from £1000 to £700. I may say now that I was,

and shall always feel, grateful to the members of the Council, who treated me in such an exceptionally handsome way. The brief Report of the proceedings of the Provincial Council in the Independent, 18th of June, 1868, was as follows: – "Grant of £500 made for services rendered by C. R. Carter in England."

No adverse comment was made in any of the newspapers on account of this grant of £500. I think it was felt that I had more than earned it. It is true, that some time prior to its being brought before the Provincial Council, an esteemed friend of mine, now Under-Secretary of Public Works in Wellington, had told me that he thought the most foolish thing I ever did was to refuse the £250, offered to me in London by Mr. J. Morrison, (then agent for the Provincial Government) on account of and as part payment for my services in connection with the Slip and Wharf – instead of waiting and trusting to the sense of fairness of the Provincial Council. My friend probably thought that "a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush." But I was right after all. Dr. Featherston wrote and told me I had done right in declining the £250. More than this, I knew I had acted disinterestedly and honorably, throughout the whole transaction. I only did what was right, and if one does that, one always has a clear conscience, and even from a pecuniary point of view in nine cases out of ten justice will be meted out to you, when the facts of the case are known.

CHAPTER XIV. GOVERNOR BOWEN...

CHAPTER XIV.

GOVERNOR BOWEN – A LEVEE AND ONE DRESS COAT – THE RECEPTION COMMITTEE TO RECEIVE THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH – HOW IT ENDS – DR. FEATHERSTON'S ILLNESS – FAREWELL DINNER TO SIR GEORGE GREY – PRIVATE AFFAIRS OBLIGE ME TO MAKE A CHANGE.

ON the 6th of February, 1868, Governor Bowen landed in Wellington. At this time a Reception Committee – of which I was a member – had been formed to receive the Duke of Edinburgh, then in Australia, but whose visit to New Zealand had been publicly announced some time before. On the 7th, Governor Bowen held a levee which was numerously attended. He looked when I passed him and glanced at him at the levee, and as I afterwards knew him – a tall stout gentleman, florid in complexion and with his hair turning grey. He always appeared to me to be a pompous sort of person and addicted to writing long despatches to the Imperial Government, on very trivial matters. From May 1,1870,to May 1,1871, he actually sent home 101 despatches which were printed in the N. Z. Blue Book. A friend of his – a Resident Magistrate – once styled him "a good-natured snob." Sir George Grey was a statesman, a scientific man, and unostentatious in his manners. Governor Browne was a plain but high-spirited and thorough English gentleman, who combined ability with common sense; but Governor Bowen, though to some extent a learned man –

versed in Greek, was – what shall I say? he was a gentleman of but little administrative capacity, and was excessively fond of show and ceremony. Lady Bowen was a tall and thin gentlewoman, of agreeable but reserved manners, and with a sallow complexion: she was a native of Greece, and I hardly need remind my reader that Governor Bowen was originally, chief Secretary to the Government of the Ionian Islands. He was born in 1820, and was succeeded in the Governorship of New Zealand, on the 18th of February, 1873, by the Rt. Hon. Sir James Ferguson, Baronet, born in the year 1832. The latter is a man of business, and an unostentatious gentleman, with sterling qualities not possessed by his predecessor.

After the levee I have made mention of, I was told that his Excellency Governor Bowen observed to Mr. E – – -, a member of the House of Representatives, that he was surprised to see so many gentlemen presented to him, attired in dress coats, for at a levee which he held in Brisbane only twelve gentlemen appeared in full dress. This reminds me of what W. B. Rhodes – one of the oldest of Wellington settlers – related to me, namely: – That during two or three levees, held by Captain Fitzroy in Wellington, in the very early years of the colonization of New Zealand, a party of about twenty-five gentlemen, attending the levee, had only one dress coat amongst them. What was to be done? By agreement one gentleman put on the solitary coat, appeared in the presence of the Governor, passed him soon and returned quickly to his companions, hastily divested himself of the swallow-tail, which was as speedily donned by a second – a third, and so on, to the twenty-fifth person, when from having to hang loosely on thin gentlemen, and fit tightly on stout ones, it at last exhibited considerable symptoms of wear and tear. "It was shameful!" exclaimed Rhodes to me, "for I believe the Governor was watching us from the drawing-room window."

By the end of February considerable preparation had been

made for the public rejoicing which was to take place on the arrival of the Duke. Mr. Stafford had caused to be erected, in the rear of Government House, a huge and unsightly two-winged building, as a ball room and dining saloon. When it was completed – as far as the shell of gigantic wood-work could be said to be completed – he wished to hand it over to the Reception Committee – and give us £300 to defray the expenses of a sumptuous dinner, and grand ball: but we declined to take it on these terms. Stewards were, however, elected for the ball, I was one of them, and we studied to make the best of Mr. Stafford's barn-like structure, which had the merit of being large enough and high enough for anything we should require of it as a great hall: but it was the expense of making it wind and water proof, adding annexes and decorating it internally, that made us hesitate to take the building over. In the midst of our perplexities, on the 21st of March, Wellington people were startled: a sensational report ran through the town that the newspapers were about to publish a telegram from Nelson of a distressing nature. The telegram soon appeared and ran as follows: –

"From our Own Correspondent – This day.
"Wellington, Saturday, March 21st, 1868.

"DUKE OF EDINBURGH SHOT.

"Nelson, 12.45 p.m.
"News by 'John Penn' arrived this morning states that on Thursday,the 12th inst., a telegram was received at Melbourne, stating that the Duke of Edinburgh was shot – supposed by Fenians – at a picnic at Sydney. Not known if fatal."

Most people would not believe this. "It must be a hoax," "It cannot be true," were expressions that might be heard in all directions: but it was too true: a second telegram reached Wellington two days after the first, confirming the truth of the first, and giving further particulars. It appears that on

the 12th of March, the Duke of Edinburgh, while attending a pic-nic at the Sailors' Home, Sydney, was shot in the back by an assassin named G. O'Farrell. The Duke fell to the ground. The assassin next fired at Sir William Manning, mistaking him for the Governor of New South Wales. The ball missed the Judge, but wounded Mr. George Thorne seriously. The Duke was removed to Government House. He bled profusely, and was very weak. The ball was extracted on the 14th, and the Duke was then going on famously, and said to be out of all danger. The excitement in Sydney was intense.

I need hardly remark that this deplorable event brought the Reception Committee's exertions to an end – for a time (when I was absent from the Colony). However, after returning to England convalescent, the Duke courageously went back to New Zealand to pay his long promised visit, and was enthusiastically received wherever he appeared there.

In August, 1868, Dr. Featherston was very ill of sciatica. At times I used occasionally to go and see him, and chat with him on a spare evening. One night I called upon him: it was rather late, and I found him better in health and in a joking mood; for when I said to him, "Doctor, you are not going to die yet, you are often ailing," he replied, "I have been expected to die from the day of my election as Superintendent in the year 1853, but here I am getting as well as ever, and mind, Carter! don't tell my political opponents this (he said this with a peculiar and hearty laugh of his), for if you do they will think that they will never get rid of me." He told me at the same time that his mother was still living, and just ninety years of age.

In September, 1868, I was busy as one of a public Committee, organised to give a farewell dinner to Sir George Grey, on the termination of his period of office as Governor of N.Z., and on his departure from the Colony. Just fifteen years before this time I had done the same thing, on the occassion of his being

sent to the Cape of Good Hope. We gave the dinner – or rather cold collation – on the 8th of September, in the Odd Fellows' Hall. Sir George Bowen was present as the new Governor just arrived; he made a set and studied speech in a clear voice and confident manner – which produced but little or no impression on the auditory. Sir George Grey in returning thanks – notwithstanding his cold and calculating nature – was, when he alluded to old times – to the early days of the Colony – to its primitive era and to the "Old Colonists," (many of whom, with their sons and daughters, were assembled before him) moved with visible emotion. And, when from his elevated position on the platform, he surveyed the three long tables, each seventy-five feet in length, all laden with a profusion of the choicest viands and rich wines, decorated with emblems, gay with vases of flowers, and bordered with six rows of Colonists, sitting as close together as they could sit – it was, when compared with what existed in Wellington twenty years before, a memorable contrast.

Sir George felt this contrast as well as saw it, for when at the conclusion of his remarks, with faltering speech he again spoke of old settlers and old times, and finally bade us all farewell, the scene became impressive if not solemn, and more than two or three of those persons present – to whose Colonial welfare he had contributed so much – could not help dropping a tear at taking leave of the best of New Zealand Governors. Sir George Grey was born in the year 1813, and Dr. Featherston on the 13th of March, 1813; so that both these New Zealand "Worthies," the former now (1874) residing on his island home, in the Province of Auckland, and the latter, as Agent-General for N.Z., living in London, are sixty-one years of age.

But one thing was wanting to complete this deeply interesting and partly historical scene; but one regret was felt, and afterwards, I heard it expressed in the following words: –

"What a pity the 'Doctor' was not there, – the parting scene of the last great gathering of old Wellington settlers would then have been complete." This could not be, Dr. Featherston was still ill at home. The day before the dinner, he told me he would attend if possible, but he was too ill either to walk there or to be conveyed in a carriage.

I am afraid I am, for the length of my book, dwelling too long on Wellington affairs, so I must hasten on the course of my self-allotted task. I cannot describe the escape of that cunning and blood-thirsty savage, Te Kooti, and his gang of brutal Hauhaus, who succeeded in getting away from the Chatham Islands, and, in the November following, committed one of the most cruel and treacherous massacres of white settlers that ever occurred in New Zealand. I can only allude to an effort I made to establish gas-works in Wellington. I had brought out plans for the same with me from England, and had arranged with Mr. Bowen, a well-known gas-plant manufacturer of St. Neots, to supply all the material when I had started the company. I held a meeting, and delivered a lecture on the subject in the Wellington Athenaeum, and could easily have established the company, but now, after I had become fairly settled down again in Wellington, I was once more to move. At this time my daughter could not get rid of a cough she had long been troubled with, and the general delicate state of her health gave us great anxiety. We were advised, and we felt it our duty to try the effect of a visit to Melbourne – a warmer place than Wellington, and if that failed I resolved to try a sea voyage to England.

CHAPTER XV. DEPARTURE FROM WELLINGTON...

PART OF WELLINGTON. – 1871.
CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. NEW GOVERNMENT HOUSE. OLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
WELLINGTON CLUB: FORMERLY BARON ALDORF'S HOTEL.

CHAPTER XV.

DEPARTURE FROM WELLINGTON – CALLING AT LYTTELTON, PORT CHALMERS, THE BLUFF, AND ARRIVAL AT MELBOURNE – LEAVE SANDRIDGE PIER – IN BASS'S STRAITS – OFF THE ISLAND OF RODONDO – THE BOUNTY ISLANDS – CAPE HORN – ST. PAUL'S ROCKS – ARRIVAL IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

ON Monday, the 28th of December, 1868, we took our departure from Wellington in the steamer "Rangitoto," for Melbourne. En route, we called in at Lyttleton on the 29th, and went on shore to pass through the dark railway tunnel – 1 1/2 miles in length, which leads to Christchurch, this city of the plain. Here I visited the Council Chamber, which, with its pointed stone ceiling, ribbed, painted and gilded, is an architectural gem of its kind in New Zealand.

On the 30th we left Lyttelton, and on the 31st we arrived at Port Chalmers. In a small steamer we steamed nine miles up the harbour, to the stone-built capital of Otago, Dunedin – "the city upon the hill." Its appearance exceeded my expectations. The harbour is very picturesque in appearance. We left Port Chalmers on the 4th of January, and were in Bluff Harbour on the following day. The so-called town at the bluff, is seated on a sandy shore, and consisted at this time of seventeen shabby wooden houses. Its appearance was bleak and uninviting in the extreme.

We left it on the 6th, and were entering Port Philip Heads at 8 p.m. on the 11th, and next day, the 12th, we were in the new and famous city of Melbourne. As, since the time in question,

I have written a descriptive account of Victoria and its capital, Melbourne, to which I shall hereafter refer, I will not say another word on this subject, except that after a stay of a few weeks we found it necessary to proceed on a sea voyage to England.

With this object in view, we left Sandridge Pier on the 22nd of February, 1869, amidst many a cheer from a crowd on the wharf and the crews of fine large passenger ships which were soon to follow us on the trackless waters of the ocean: after that we cheered the Duke of Edinburgh's ship of war, the "Galatea." We anchored for the night, and on the 23rd, we up-anchor and commenced our voyage, with the wind dead-ahead. At last with a steam tug's assistance we got as far as Queenscliff, and anchored there till the 27th, when we sailed through Port Philip Heads. Next day, Sunday, was followed by a squally night, when the full moon, at times, shone out brightly, and at other times was hid from view by rapidly driving masses of black clouds; we found ourselves with Australia on our left, Tasmania on our right, and the steep pinnacle little island of Rodondo before us, and lying on the north side of Bass Straits

Yes, the island of Rodondo was before us. I remember that boisterous Sunday night. Shall I ever forget it? Not while memory lasts. There was the small island of Rodondo – which is rugged in appearance, conical in shape, and rises sheer out of the water, to a height of 1130 feet. Its sides are so steep that even seals cannot find a resting place on them. We had been tacking and making way down the Strait all day against a strong head-wind. To clear the island in question, without tacking again, our skilled Captain sailed close up to it. There was deep water all round it, and near to it. We were so close to it that, by the light of the moon, we could distinguish its jagged rocks and scrubby surface. We appeared to be about 300 yards from the dashing waves which foamed around it. Its proximity looked dangerous: but we placed the greatest

reliance on our Captain's knowledge. Our sails were full and distended by the stormy breeze to their full extent, and we should in a minute more, be scudding past it. The minute passed; the poop and decks were crowded by excited passengers: some were silent, others demonstrative, but all looked serious. When – what? Why, without warning, and in an instant, the wind ceased to blow. The sea was rough but the air was calm, and to everyone's amazement the ship's sails were empty and idly napping against the masts. She kept moving though there was no wind below; there was no wind aloft; far above the mast-head clouds were driving past.

"D-n that!" I heard the Captain exclaim as he looked up at his ship's sails. "What is the matter?" whispered frightened voices. The truth was we were fairly under the lee of the island, and completely sheltered from the wind. Fortunately our ship had been previously going at the rate of ten knots an hour, and had way on her just sufficient to carry us past the island in two or three minutes, when her sails again filled – and we escaped the danger of drifting on to Rodondo's rocks, and certain destruction. Soon after this, we passed the islands called Kent's Group.

Next day the wind was fair, and after experiencing tempestuous weather for several days, we passed early on the morning of March 5th, between Stewart's Island (the most southerly part of New Zealand) and some dangerous rocks called the Snares.

We were now fairly on our voyage to Cape Horn, and I may as well say, that our ship was called the "Essex," was 1000 tons burthen, and commanded by Captain Ridgers. We carried 166 passengers, and 67 ship's company, with children, equal to 255 souls. The saloon was full of first-class passengers, and the ship carried besides, a large and valuable cargo. We were saloon passengers, and were fairly comfortable during the voyage.

On Sunday the 7th, we were in latitude 47 deg. 29' S., and longitude 177 deg. 21' E. The day was clear and beautiful. The Captain was anxious to sight the Bounty Islands, which are seldom seen, and are incorrectly laid down as regards longitude. At 6 p.m. we were in full sight of them. They appeared like a chain of large rugged and bare rocks, about three and a half miles in length. To endeavour to lay them down correctly; we stood on-and-off them at about four miles distance; but our Captain discovering a sunken rock awash, about two miles

BOUNTY ISLANDS.

from them, deemed it prudent – as we were not on a voyage of discovery – to change the ship's course more to the south, and give them a wide berth. There was an odour of guano from them. There was not the slightest signs of a landing place visible on them. An everlasting surf seems to beat against their naked sides, and in stormy weather it must be a frightful place. Ships bound for Cape Horn, which have never been heard of, may have been shipwrecked on some dark night on these isles of desolation, and hopelessly

lost. The position of the Bounty Islands, as it was laid down on this occasion by our Captain, was considered to be in latitude 47 deg. 29' S., and longitude 174 deg. 54' E. Their situation, authoritively given in Butler's Atlas, is – lat. 46 deg. 5' S. and lon. 178 deg. E.

On the 8th, we gained a day – our position then being lat. 48 deg. 40'; lon. 170 deg.. During the next four days we had fine weather, and bore away further south: each day's run averaging about 250 knots, or 933 in all. By the 12th, the weather had become cold, wet and boisterous, and so it continued till the 23rd, on which day we buried a cabin passenger, who had come on board at Melbourne ill of consumption. The wind was high, and there was a heavy swell on the sea, as the dead body of our fellow passenger, wrapped up in canvas, like a mummy, and a round shot at its feet was – amidst the reading of the funeral service – slid off a gun-carriage, and dropped into the stormy waters on the verge of the Southern Antarctic Ocean.

We saw no icebergs, though on the 26th, we were as far south as 56 deg. 37', and were nearing the much-dreaded Cape Horn. On the 27th, before daylight, we commenced to round it. During the night preceding, it blew fearfully hard, and towards daybreak the gale rose into a terrific squall, and was strong enough to blow some of our main and foretop sails into ribbons. The chief officer, whose watch on deck it was, became timid. He called the Captain, who rushed on to the poop, with nothing but his shirt and coat on. There was no great danger if our spars held good. Our ship was sound and well built. It was now between three and four o'clock in the morning. The Captain was still on deck, coolly giving his orders to take in sail: when, after seeing all made snug, and influenced, no doubt, by his scanty Highland attire and the Cape Horn cold – he returned to the warm cot in his cabin.

The slumbers of the passengers were unpleasantly disturbed

by falling ropes, seamen's shouts and the fierce wind roaring and whistling through the rigging. At daybreak we sighted the island of Diego Ramirez which lies some little distance S.W. of that great group of islands called Tierra del Fuego.

I went on deck just as the island of Diego Ramirez was passing out of sight. Everything on deck was gravely quiet; even the sailors looked demure. Only one or two other passengers besides myself were on the wet poop. The ship was tearing through the water with amazing swiftness – fifteen miles an hour. It blew so hard that I could not stand without holding on to something fixed. There were neither waves nor billows to be seen.in the watery waste around me. For a short time the gale was at its height, and blew so fierce and strong that the ocean appeared like a seething cauldron – an immense expanse of boiling white foam, through which our good ship was straining, and, as it were, racing for its life to get round – to double the Horn at thirty miles distant from it, and on our 28th day out from Port Philip Heads.

Cape Horn, discovered in the year 1616 by the Dutch navigator, Schouter, who named it after his native town Hoorn – is a wild and precipitous headland, 500 feet in height, and forms the south point of Hermit's Island, the most southerly isle of the Tierra del Fuego group, which is separated from the southern extremity of South America by the Straits of Magellan. Cape Horn lies in lat. 55 deg. 59; lon. 67 deg. 16 W.

The 28th was Sunday and a beautiful day considering our proximity to the "Horn," which we had now rounded, and our vessel was bearing, us away to warmer latitudes. Once round the "Horn," our passengers rejoiced that, the bowsprit of our vessel pointed to old England, though the latter was still far distant. For a few days the weather was cold and misty, accompanied at times with a head wind. One day we were becalmed, on another we could take no

observation of the sun. In one twenty-four hours, with the sun shining at intervals, we ran 271 nautical miles in a fair gale.

On the 6th of April, in lat. 40 deg. 43' S; lon. 34 deg. 39' W. we were shooting albatrosses, and the sea was smooth enough for us to lower a boat to pick up the dead ones. Light and variable winds for a few days, in which the operation of skinning the albatrosses was carried on – and for a change, on the 11th, we experienced a heavy gale of wind, which was succeeded by a beautiful day on the 12th. By the 15th, we were in the tropics, and the 20th was a lovely day. The wind was light, but sufficient to keep our clipper ship moving at the rate of six miles an hour. "Ah!" I said to myself, "who could believe that the calm and quiet sea we are now sailing over, and the glorious marine views above, below us, and around us, could be agitated by storms, and broken up by tempests." We all enjoyed that day. The sky overhead was a soft pale blue colour; and the sea below us a bright light blue, and appeared like an azure plain set and sparkling with monster diamonds. The breeze was cooling, and one felt moderately warm.

I sometimes think that life is very like a sea-voyage; it may be a short or a long one: there may be an untimely shipwreck or a safe arrival in the haven of old age. There may be a breaking-up of the human constitution, as well as of a ship. Life has its calms and its storms: its fair and its foul weather, and like a ship, its end is decay and dissolution.

By this time we had spoken several ships, and on the evening of the 22nd, the Captain and ship's officers gave a grand concert on the poop, and a luxurious dinner in the saloon. This ship's fete was a success, and I think a source of gratification to nearly all on board. Admission to the concert was by ticket. The price I forget; but it was considerable.

On the 26th we crossed the line. How glad we felt that

we were going north of it, and getting nearer to Old England. At about 12 o'clock at night of the 26th, we neared a ledge of rocks, called St. Paul's or Don Pedro's Eocks. The night was fine, the sea was almost calm, and the moon shone out from a clear sky. We were not far from this great bank of jagged and black rocks, against which the sea was breaking. We kept at about one mile distance from them. They are about three quarters of a mile in length, and stand about five miles from the equator. They are seldom approached by ships, and are of course uninhabited.

ST. PAULS ROCKS.

On the morning of the 18th of May, we were among the Orange Islands – the Azores or Western Islands. We passed one named Flores, and another called Corvo. The weather was fine, and the Islands, though hilly, looked beautiful. They may well be called fruit islands, for their climate and rich volcanic soil annually produce over 160,000 boxes of oranges, and 17,000 pipes of wine.

About the 25th our passengers appeared dull and silent.

The winds had become contrary and tantalizing. Two months before this we were all anxiety to round Cape Horn: a month before, we said how glad we should be to cross the line, and a week before, our great hope was soon to pass the Western Islands. All these hopes had been realized, still we were 300 miles from the Land's End, and had given up all hopes of making a quick passage in our clipper ship, which was only going one day 108 knots, another 88, a third 70, and so on. As a divertissement on the 26th, a swallow came on board. The first day it flew in-and-out the cabin windows, and about the saloon. The second day, it perched on the brass railing above the dining table at breakfast, and on the poop it ate the flies we offered it from off our hands. By the 27th thirty-two vessels were in sight. Now it is the 28th, the weather is tempestuous, the sea runs high, and the easterly wind blows strong. Now we are on the crest of a huge wave: next we sink down into a valley of the ocean: now we are rising again on the ridge of a billow, and suddenly we see down below us a little craft. It is a pilot boat. Where did it come from? Did it rise from the depths of the sea, or drop from the clouds above? I never saw her before that instant. Never mind where she came from, there she is, she has news, and a Channel guide on board. Down we go again, and a huge wall of waters divides us once more from the welcome stranger: she hails us, and our Captain answers. I wonder how she will ever come alongside us, and convey to us the latest news and a Pilot. She is a smart-built, miniature ship, she looks like a yacht. There she is tacking again; how taut her little masts; how trim her sails; how skilfully and coolly, yet daringly she is handled, as the spray dashes wildly and breaks over her clean decks and damps her white sheets. She has a small crew, consisting of three or four stalwart and weather-beaten seamen. She is now on our lee-side, 50 yards distant, and her crew are launching a tiny boat – into which descends the Pilot

and his man. The cockle-shell of a boat will upset. No she won't. She floats like a cork, skims over the angry and foaming waters like an albatross, and safely arrives alongside our ship. The Pilot leaps on board us, and places at our disposal his budget of news, and his nautical services. The Pilot is weather-wise, and sage in sea matters. He knows all about the winds, the currents, the shoals and the rocks in the English Channel. May the 29th, a cold wind is blowing hard, and dead ahead – the sea is so rough at night that the dead lights – shutters – are down over our cabin windows. Now it is Sunday, and a beautiful day. We have church service on deck: now it is the last day in May, and we are off the Isle of Wight. Now we take a steam-tug – now we pass Beachy Head, then, at 10 p.m. we are passing Hastings: how beautiful the gas lights look. They illuminate this famous watering place for two miles along the shore. It is the 1st of June, and glorious weather. Now we pass Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate in succession, and most pleasant to look at, and then we enter the Thames: by 3 p.m. we are passing Gravesend: now at 6 p.m. we are in the West India Docks, and our voyage of ninety-nine days from Melbourne to London is happily ended.

CHAPTER XVI. A MEETING OF COLONISTS AT A RAILWAY HOTEL...

CHAPTER XVI.

A MEETING OF COLONISTS AT A RAILWAY HOTEL – WHAT THEY SAID AND DID – I FIND MYSELF ONE OF A DEPUTATION TO A GREAT MAN – ADVANTAGES OF POSITION – ARRIVAL OF DR. FEATHERSTON IN LONDON – HIS NEGOTIATIONS WITH LORD GRANVILLE – DEPARTURE OF TROOPS FROM NEW ZEALAND – THE TWO COMMISSIONERS – DIFFICULTIES OF DR. FEATHERSTON IN SECURING A GUARANTEE TO A LARGE LOAN – CHARLES DICKENS AND HIS READINGS.

ON our second arrival in England from New Zealand, and after an absence of two years, I found London much about the same, in appearance, as when we had last left. The health of our daughter – though it was still delicate – was, I am happy to say, much improved by the sea-voyage.

For some months, now, I had leisure to look about me. At this time trade was dull in England, and public meetings were being held at which emigration was recommended as a remedy for existing distress. There was also considerable discussion going on respecting our Colonies and their relation to the Empire at large. It was quite evident that the leaders of both the Conservative and the Liberal parties had made up their minds to withdraw all British soldiers from the Australasian Colonies, but they hesitated to do so.

On the 1st of December, 1869, I attended a meeting of

Colonists at the Cannon Street Terminus Hotel. This meeting was convened for the purpose of calling public attention to the importance of the Colonies to England, and to protest against their being suffered to drift away from the Empire through sheer neglect of them on the part of the British Government, and in consequence of its decision to withdraw the garrisons from some of them. At this meeting I met my old Colonial friends Sir George Grey and Mr. Sewell, and exchanged cordial greetings with them. We were all Colonists there. One paper designated us "Returned Colonists." Nearly every British Colony furnished a Colonist to this Meeting, who was on a visit to or resided permanently in England. I do not know whom we represented but ourselves. At all events, we were not accredited to act by any of the Colonies, and hereafter what we were doing might be termed presumptuous or officious by the colonial press. Some effective speeches were made, and this agitation – like most agitations – had weight with those in high places – who were not unfairly charged with being in favor of measures calculated to diminish the extent and prestige of the Empire. There were several meetings held at Cannon Street. I heard Sir George Grey and Mr. Sewell speak at one of them. The irrepressible Mr. Wilson of the Melbourne Argus seemed to act as leader. The result was that a deputation waited on the then Secretary for the Colonies, Lord Granville, on the 15th of December, at the old official bureau, the world-known Downing Street. Sewell asked me to go, and in consequence I was present at the interview. The room we were ushered into was rather large, but with a low ceiling. The deputation was large, and was introduced in the usual manner. Lord Granville received us in a bland and smiling way. Several Colonists addressed his Lordship, and after hearing them and asking if any one else wished to speak, and there being no answer, he made a long, elaborate, and able reply, evidently carefully prepared

and intended to confuse rather than convince or refute the arguments of the deputation speakers. In fact, it seemed to me that the reply was in answer to what had been said at the Cannon Street meetings, where there were facts, arguments, and statistics in the speeches, combined with boldness and spirit in their delivery. If so, the reply was very defective: but taken as a rejoinder to what was so timidly said, so feebly urged, and so mildly put by the Colonial speakers, on this occasion, it was very effective and made the deputation look rather ridiculous. Then it must be borne in mind that there were at least two Lords and a Duke present, before which class Englishmen are apt to stand abashed. Yet in Lord Granville's personal appearance there was nothing aristocratic or calculated to produce a feeling of awe. He looked very much like a good-natured and educated middle-aged well-to-do farmer. Perhaps his title was the cause of the effect produced. "Who is that speaking?" I quietly remarked to a gentleman (Mr. Wilson, I think) standing next to me. "Hush," said he, "that's Lord Milton." You might have heard a pin drop, all were so anxious to hear a Lord speak. I looked towards his Lordship. I could not help feeling for him – he looked so pale and sickly – and he was a most indifferent speaker. Had he been a commoner, I thought, how different his reception would have been.

It also occurred to me that the British nation must be very easily governed, if such ordinary, but easy-going educated gentlemen, like Lord Granville and other noblemen can govern successfully. However, position is everything in England; but then there is this difficulty, position cannot dispense with the assistance and talents of a Gladstone or a Disraeli, or even a John Bright.

Next day after the above interview, the members of the deputation awoke to find themselves, if not famous, yet public property, for the Government had sent a report of their interview with Lord Granville to all the principal morning

newspapers, which report was headed with their names, and was intended to show how the deputation had been discomfited by the Colonial Minister. It certainly was a wet blanket that damped the ardour of active Colonial politicians in London.

I must now briefly record that on the 5th of January, 1870, we had to mourn the untimely loss of our daughter – our only child – who died of scarlet fever, after about three weeks illness, and in her nineteenth year. Her remains were interred in the catacombs in Highgate Cemetery. The following copy of an extract from a letter of condolence, which I received from an old and tried friend, will help to show the extent of the grievous and irreparable loss we had sustained: –

"We lament the irreparable bereavement which you have suffered, in the death of a beloved and only child – amiable, talented and accomplished – in the flower of youth – the hope, the pride and the joy of her parents."

During the year 1869, the N.Z. Government had appointed Dr. Featherston and Mr. Dillon Bell as Commissioners to proceed to England, to settle certain vexed questions and disputes between the Colony and the British Government. They arrived in England in January, 187.0. I saw Featherston at the Charing Cross Hotel on the 24th, the day after his arrival. I found him in excellent spirits, and he expressed himself as sure to have his own way with the Imperial Government. I told him I thought he would not be able to induce the Home Government to allow the recalled regiment to remain. "Oh! yes, I think I can," he said, with his usual significant nod. I replied, "I know your success as a negotiator is great, but I fear that in this case the utmost you will do, will be to get a guarantee to a loan and assistance in raising a body of men on your own account." He dissented from this opinion. On the 27th, he and Mr. Bell had an interview with Lord Granville, and on the 29th, he dined with his Lordship. Lord Westbury and several Cabinet Ministers were present.

After dinner the party returned to the drawing room where Lady Granville was reclining on a sofa. Featherston entered into conversation with her for about half an hour, when seeing one or two of the guests leaving he rose, took his leave of her Ladyship, and was about to go also. Just as he had left the drawing room, Lord Granville called after him and took him into another apartment. There he assured him how glad he should be to see him at the Colonial Office. "Say when you will come; fix your own time, and bring your credentials with you," said his Lordship. The Doctor felt himself in excellent cue, and replied, "My Lord, I have but one proposal to make and till I have an answer to that, I cannot go into any other." His Lordship seemed struck with this remark, and said, "We have half the Cabinet here, let us talk the matter over;" so Messrs. Bright and Lowe and the Lord Chancellor were called in to discuss New Zealand matters, and listen to Featherston's reasons for not withdrawing the troops from our Colony. The Ministers hinted at the propriety of acknowledging the Maori King, and Lord Granville expressed the willingness of the Government to assist New Zealand with officers for any military forces she might raise herself, or to let her have discharged Indian soldiers or constabulary, but British troops must be withdrawn. In reply to this, Featherston asked the following decided and pertinent question: – "Is it your policy to serve all the Colonies as you have served New Zealand? If it is, dare you avow it? You say, 'acknowledge the Maori King.' Can you legally do so?" I don't know what the Ministerial response to this was: but the meeting broke up without any definite understanding being come to. 14

The result of the troop question was that on the anniversary of the foundation of the settlement of Wellington, namely –

January 22nd, 1870 (seven days before the date of the dinner above named), her Majesty's ship "Virago" sailed from Wellington Harbor with the last detachments of the 18th regiment on board, and on the 19th of February following, the head quarters of the last Imperial regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the 18th, left Auckland in the steamer "Hero."

Thus on the 19th of February, 1870, the last Imperial soldier departed from the shores of New Zealand.

Many centuries ago, there was a great Roman Empire – showing signs of decline – that withdrew its troops from the shores of Britain. At the present day, that same Britain (another Empire, greater than the world has yet seen, and which rules 238 millions of people in India alone), has withdrawn its legions from one of its remote island dependencies – colonized by its own people. Is this a sign of weakness? No thinking man can call it an indication of strength. It may be policy to do so – at the same time it is just as well to be frank, and acknowledge that henceforth the British Empire must be contracted rather than extended, and that therefore it has entered upon the first phase of decline.

If Dr. Featherston was unsuccessful about the retention of the troops in New Zealand, he certainly was much more fortunate in this loan of one million. I know the difficulties he had, in inducing the Home Government to give an Imperial guarantee to so large a sum. At first, the utmost they would do was to give a guarantee to only half a million. Bell would have consented to a guarantee on a small sum; but the persistence and inflexibility of Featherston prevailed over the scruples and fears of Lord Granville. It is easy work for an Agent to come home to raise a loan and place it in the hands of the Crown Agents, to make all the calculations respecting it, arrange the mode of issue, advertise it and receive applications for it. It is a very different thing to induce a Government to guarantee a loan of one million, when it is well known that

they are much opposed to it; and what a gain to a Colony it is, when the saving in interest is considered. Without this loan, as a stand-by, Mr. Vogel's recent borrowing operations would have been jeopardised, if not frustrated.

At the risk of being tedious, but in justice to Dr. Featherston, I will here place on record a few particulars connected with his mission to England in conjunction with Mr. Bell – in the year 1870. In the Colony it was well known that these two gentlemen had not been remarkable for their cordiality in their political relations when associated together. Mr. B. was vain and assuming without being a man of great ability; while Dr. F. was a man of great ability and without vanity or assumption. In the Colony, as public men and old Colonists, they were both respected but not in an equal degree – the lion's share of respect being generally awarded to the "Doctor." At first, while acting as Commissioners in London, in 1870, they played at cross purposes; besides, while Dr. Featherston was away in the north at the end of April, there was a little intriguing going on. Mr. J. Morrison, our Agent, wanted to take some credit for a little emigration scheme of his own, or rather for one, the abstruse calculations of which a friend of mine (Mr. Temple) had worked out for him. This scheme was intricate and impracticable. It affected to show how 50,000 emigrants might be introduced in ten years, at the rate of 5000 a-year, and was introduced as a self-supporting scheme, requiring only yearly advances of from £60,000 to £93,000 (£426,692 in all, to be repaid in thirteen and a half years) from the Imperial Government to set it agoing. Mr. Morrison – through the kind agency of a member of Parliament (Mr. Magniac) – succeeded in bringing his scheme under the notice of Lord Granville, but, as might be expected, it fell through.

Featherston's colleague, Mr. Bell, became aware of this, and, not to be outdone, took the matter up in order to do a little

business and gain credit on his own account, while the Doctor was away; so Mr. Bell talked over his scheme with the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Mr Monsell.

One day, at this time, I called upon Mr. Bell at Charing Cross Hotel. I asked him how Featherston was getting on in health at the north. "Oh!" he replied, "he is very well, and I should recommend him to stop there some time longer." The Doctor did not "stop there some time." He returned to town sooner than was expected.

A day or two after his return I called upon him in the large front room of the first floor of the Charing Cross Hotel. Mr. Bell was seated at the opposite end of the room. After we had chatted a little, in came Sir Charles Clifford, who with his usual brusqueness said to the Doctor, "What is this I hear, Featherston? Monsell has been telling me you have been negotiating for a small loan of £25,000 a-year, for emigration purposes." The Doctor, surprised, said that he did not know anything about it. Bell up to this time had not apparently noticed the entrance of Sir Charles Clifford. This is readily explained, for Bell was very near-sighted. Featherston then turned to Bell, and said, "Good God! Bell, surely you have not been proposing anything of the kind? nothing less than a million will do." Bell colored up, and admitted he had had "some talk" with Monsell, about a loan and about emigration matters. The fact was, he had been negotiating for an advance of £25,000 a-year, the interest of which was to be paid by the Colony to the Imperial Government annually; and at the expiration of three years, one third of the principal was to be repaid: and then, if all went on well, New Zealand might go on again in the same way and continue till 50,000 emigrants, some day, might probably be introduced. Mr. Monsell expressed his surprise – in reference to Mr. Bell's scheme – that the Colony was content with so little. Shortly after this, Featherston told me he was almost afraid to leave Bell a day

by himself. I have no doubt Mr. Bell was very anxious to do his best for the Colony, and thought that the Doctor asked too much. We shall see which proved right. I doubted the Doctor's success.

Fresh negotiations were opened with the Colonial Office, which on the 10th of May resulted in Lord Granville's agreeing to guarantee half a million sterling if the Doctor would sue for it in forma pauperis. This the Doctor declined to do. The security to be given for the half million offered, was to be 3 1/2 per cent. Treasury bills, to be issued each year as the money might be required, and repayable at the end of ten years, by means of a special loan raised on the Colony's own credit. Doctor Featherston's terms were simply an Imperial guarantee on one million to be raised by the Colony, and which was to be expended on the construction of roads, and other public works, and employment of Maories on them. Featherston offered to telegraph to the N.Z. Government the offer made by Lord Granville, but declined to recommend its acceptance. Negotiations seemed on the point of being broken off. Several wordy and stormy messages passed between the two: private notes were written in which separation of the Colony from the Empire was alluded to: but neither would give way.

May the 11th came, when the telegram must be despatched. Featherston and, I think, Mr. Bell went to the Colonial Office to show Lord Granville the telegram they were about to forward to New Zealand. His Lordship was out; they saw the permanent Under Secretary, Sir Frederick Rogers, who desired them not to send it without Granville's first seeing it. He recommended Featherston to go to his Lordship's private residence in Bruton Street. As the telegram was to be sent away at 4 p.m. the Doctor went, but found him from home. Lord Granville had gone to be present at the ceremony of opening the University of London, at Burlington Gardens (of which place of learning he was Chancellor), said his private

secretary. Would the Commissioners wait? he knew his Lordship was anxious to see them; could they not agree to delay the transmission of the telegram in question? intimated the same gentleman.

The Commissioners agreed to wait and delay the telegram until 5 p.m. They returned to their hotel, where, very soon after, the private secretary arrived, and informed them that Lord Granville would not insist on the Commissioners asking for the £500,000, but would make the offer himself; to which Featherston replied, "I will forward the Imperial offer to the Colony, but will not recommend its acceptance." And so the telegram was flashed across the Mediterranean – over the desert in Egypt – down the Red Sea – on to Aden – across to Bombay, and forwarded overland to Point de Galle in time to catch the mail steamer to Australia. When the Doctor had finished telling me all this, on the evening of the 13th, I went away impressed with the belief that this was a final offer. The Doctor seemed to think the game almost up, for in a day or two he said he was off to the Continent for a week's holiday.

On the Monday following, May 16th, I was surprised to see a short paragraph in a morning paper, to the effect, that the Imperial Government had consented to guarantee a loan of one million sterling to New Zealand, to be expended on public works and emigration, and that Parliament would be asked to sanction the same.

On the evening of the same day I saw Featherston, who handed me two proposed new telegrams to read. One was by Granville, the other by the Doctor, which he had written himself because he thought his Lordship's was rather ambiguous. The Imperial telegram stated that N. Z. Treasury bills bearing 3 1/2 per cent, interest were to be given by the Colony to the British Government. Dr. Featherston, in his telegram, left these words out, and introduced the word "conciliatory."

The Doctor's telegram was in its turn altered by Lord Granville, and the result was, a telegram embracing the views of both these negotiators was agreed to, and in consequence the two preceding ones were cancelled. The mutually accepted telegram was sent off at half-past 10 p.m. on Saturday night, May the 14th, orders having been previously given to "clear the line" through to Bombay for two Government messages. That night, I presume, the two Commissioners slept soundly, and dreamt pleasantly about thanks and monetary gifts to be bestowed on them by an appreciative Colonial Parliament, and a grateful public, on their return to New Zealand.

On the evening of the 16th of May, the Representatives of the Colony were honored. They attended a grand ball, given by her Majesty at Buckingham Palace, in court costume. There they found the usual crowd and crush of gaily and splendidly dressed ladies and gentlemen of the period; but as I never heard of any one of these high-classed, and highly civilized people either feeling very happy or even comfortable on such state occasions I presume that the two gentlemen in question were not an exception to a general rule. However that might be, one sad misadventure befel them. They left the palace at about two o'clock in the morning. At the Palace gates "The Commissioners' carriage" was called out again and again: but no "Commissioners' carriage," appeared: no Commissioner's carriage was to be found; no Commissioners' carriage was there, and what was worse, no cab was to be had for love or money. What was to be done? The morning was fine but cold; their knee breeches and silk stockings were thin and the rest of their finery and glittering swords had rather a theatrical appearance; but I am happy to say they were equal to the occasion for they walked home to Charing Cross by way of St. James' Park and the Birdcage Walk – with no one to stare at them excepting people of nocturnal habits. The Doctor related this adventure with great glee the day after it

happened. He was always fond of a joke, and told an anecdote with wonderful effect, even when it went against himself.

After this, on the 28th of the same month, came Lord Granville's dinner in town, in honor of the Queen's birthday, to which Sir George Grey, Dr. Featherston and Mr. Bell were invited,and which they attended. Grey had had some unpleasant recent correspondence with the Colonial Office (the chiefs of which I am of opinion had not behaved well to him – an old and faithful servant of the Crown) and he was invited, as it were, to come and shake hands and let by-gones be by-gones; but he arrived the last guest, sat a considerable distance from Lord Granville, and excused himself for being late by saying he had called for Mr. Torrens (M.P.) and Mrs. Torrens, not being a punctual lady, was not ready, which detained him. Suffice it to say, I was told it was a pleasant party, though there did not appear to be any cordiality between Granville and Grey.

In February of this year I agreed with Mr. Stanford, Charing Cross, to publish a small volume I had written, and entitled "Victoria the British El Dorado." He undertook all risks of publishing, and the profits, if any, were to be equally divided. The book appeared, and was reviewed in the highest quarters in the most favorable manner, as may be seen from extracts from the various critiques in the Appendix to this volume. The result to myself, from a pecuniary point of view, was not satisfactory. I may say I lost nothing – neither did I gain anything.

I went one evening to hear Charles Dickens read portions of his own works. At this time his age was 58. His appearance was that of a middle-sized tallish spare man. His hair was grey, yet there was juvenility in his manner. I expected great things from him, yet I was a little disappointed. His voice was not powerful enough to fill St. James's Hall, and he did not seem to captivate his hearers. He made his farewell speech at this the last of his series of readings, at the conclusion of which he said: –

"Ladies and gentlemen, in but two short weeks from this time I hope that you may enter, in your own homes, on a new series of readings at which my assistance will be indispensable, but from these garish lights I vanish now for evermore, with one heartfelt, grateful, respectful and affectionate farewell."

This was in March, 1870; on the 9th of June following he died in harness.

While writing his last book, the "Mystery of Edwin Drood," he was taken ill, and twenty-four hours afterwards he was dead. He was a great writer, and is deservedly popular wherever the English language is spoken.

On the 28th of October, 1870, I took my leave of Dr. Featherston, who left next day for New Zealand, via Suez. Just prior to his departure, he told me that he had some hopes of returning to England as sole Commissioner for New Zealand.

14 The day after the dinner took place, Dr. Featherston related to me what I have stated above, and, as usual, I made a note of it.

CHAPTER XIX. DR. FEATHERSTON...

CHAPTER XIX.

DR. FEATHERSTON – MY INTRODUCTION TO OFFICIAL LIFE – AGRICULTURAL LABORERS AND JOSEPH ARCH – IN SEARCH OF EMIGRANTS – NEW ZEALAND EMIGRATION – COMPLAINTS ABOUT IT – THE DOCTOR'S ILLNESS – NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS AND MR. VOGEL: HIS KNIGHTHOOD, AND POLYNESIAN SCHEME – INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS TO WELLINGTON – PROVISIONS TO PARIS.

On the 2nd of May 1871, I received the following short note from Dr. Featherston.

"Wellington,
"March 3rd, 1871.

"MY DEAR CARTER,

"I think it is pretty certain that I shall leave by the San Francisco boat on 8th of April. I shall be at Charing Cross Hotel about 3rd of June. If you have nothing better to do – will you enquire about offices at the West End, and also about a house a short way out of London, and near a rail. Hampstead, Kingston-on-Thames and Richmond, have all been recommended to me as accessible places.

"Yours faithfully,
"I. E. FEATHERSTON."

During the evening of Saturday (July 22nd, 1871), Dr. Featherston arrived at Charing Cross Hotel. I met him there on the same evening, and found him in good health.

As far as making enquiries was concerned, I had done what,

in his note he had requested me to do. Shortly afterwards I succeeded in engaging for him a furnished villa at Croydon: I also inspected some offices at 7, Westminster Chambers, and recommended him to rent them, which he did by leasing eight rooms, for seven years, at a rental of £440 per annum.

Sometime in September of this year (1871) when I was with the Doctor – now Agent General for New Zealand, at a salary of £1500 a-year, and travelling allowances – at Charing Cross Hotel, he unexpectedly asked me what appointment I would accept on his staff. He took me a little by surprise, as I had never solicited him for an appointment. However, I replied that I was very willing to assist him in the emigration department, in any way I could. He next said, "what salary am I to give you? I want you to be my right-hand man." I replied, I should be content with £300 per annum, and £1 per day for Hotel and travelling expenses, when in the couutry away from the office. (The latter sum, I afterwards found to be insufficient, but I did not complain.) He at once said, "I will give you it."

What were my duties? may be asked, and I may fairly reply that they were multifarious. I had to deliver oral lectures on New Zealand: making out the quarterly emigration returns fell to my lot: sometimes I acted as Despatching Officer to our emigrant ships sailing from London, and once, one from Hamburg: I had to assist in preparing the Charter Parties for emigrant ships the Agent-General contracted for, and see them properly signed: sometimes I had to correspond with the Local Agents: often I had to select and approve of large bodies of emigrants: and finally, the control of the printing and advertising was entirely in my hands.

The work was hard, and the hours long: so much so, that my health entirely broke down, and on two occasions I was obliged to recruit it by an occasional sojourn at the sea-side for a few weeks.

In the year 1872, there was great discontent and agitation amongst the agricultural population of England. There was a rising – in a peaceable way – for a rise of wages. The social and physical condition of the farm laborers of England was discreditable to a highly civilized country like ours. The prime mover and leader of this movement was Mr. Joseph Arch – originally a farm laborer by occupation, and a Methodist local preacher by profession. I first met Mr. Arch on Good Friday, at Leamington in 1872. He appeared to me then about forty years of age. He looked as if he had lived hard, and worked hard. He was of full middle height, with a strongly built frame, and a dark complexion: he was fluent in speech and strong in voice. When I first heard him speak – on the above Good Friday, at a public meeting at Leamington – I thought his speech the most heart-stirring and manly address I had ever heard delivered by a working-man.

I had on this occasion two interviews with him on emigration to New Zealand. He was not favorable to it then. At this time (1874), he is encouraging emigration, but chiefly to Canada: his influence however seems to be on the wane. Still New Zealand has received thousands of farm laborers who would never have been induced to emigrate but for his movement.

I had sometimes to attend night meetings of these agricultural laborers. Occasionally the meetings were held in tents, on the village green or in a field adjoining it – on cold winter nights. On one night – in the autumn of 1874 – when I addressed a meeting held under some trees, at a village near Cirencester, it rained hard, but our meeting though a wet one was a lively one, for there was a band of music which headed the procession to and from the meeting, and played inspiriting tunes at intervals, at the meeting itself.

On another occasion, I was addressing a meeting in the market place at Louth in Lincolnshire – when just as I had concluded, a messenger came and informed me that I was

wanted to attend a laborers' conference early next morning, at a village nine miles away, and he had brought a spring cart to take me. It was past ten o'clock, the good people of Louth were going or gone to bed, the night was cold and damp: but it did not rain. We had not gone a mile before I found my driver was the worse for liquor: yet he was an agricultural laborer, and a Union man: but he was but mortal, and laborers drink too much at times, as well as mechanics – who are better paid and better educated. I wished he had been sober. First he drove to one side of the road, then to the ditch on the other, now one wheel was on a dried mud heap and we were nigh being upset; next he tried several lanes to find the turning he had to take, then I told him he had lost his way. "Oh no," he had not. "This is the turning," he said, as he drove me down a rutty and stony road, and landed, and nearly overturned the conveyance and me in the midst of a lot of manure heaps and corn stacks, in a lonely farm yard. He called and bawled. Nobody came, even the night shepherds were silent. Somehow-or-other we returned to the public road, where I got out of the spring cart, and feeling benumbed with cold I declined to proceed further with him. At a distance I saw a light. I walked to it, and found it to proceed from a laborer's cottage: by accident a laborer lodged there, and had not gone to bed though it was two o'clock in the morning. He allowed me to sit in a chair by the expiring embers of a fire till daylight, when I left and walked back to Louth. The result to me personally being a severe cold and cough which I did not lose for months after. I can hardly say why I incurred these risks, except it was to serve the Colony, and particularly the "Doctor," who, I knew, wanted this class of emigrants badly, and was being abused for not procuring and sending them out. Certainly my object in doing so was not a pecuniary one: I had enough of means without that. I do not know of a more unsatisfactory and worrying

business than that of carrying on a large scheme of emigration like our New Zealand one, which involved sending out during the years 1872-3-4 no less than 50,000 people to New Zealand. From July 29th, 1871, to September 30th, 1874, the actual number of emigrants despatched to New Zealand was 47,138. Of these 26,937 were English; 7,129 Scotch and 8,300 Irish. The remainder consisted principally of Germans, Danes, Swedes and Norwegians. The actual number sent out during the first three quarters of the year 1874, was no less than 28,645 souls – a greater number I should imagine, than was ever shipped to one Colony – in the same period of time. In fact the total number ordered to be sent out, between March 1st, 1874, and March 31st, 1875, reached the formidable total of 39,200 – which is 14,000 more than the whole population of New Zealand was when I first settled in it in the year 1850.

Here we have something like 53,000 emigrants which had to be selected from a probable number of 250,000 applicants. These emigrants had next to be placed on board ships, housed and supplied with provisions and medical assistance, during a voyage, varying from three to four months in duration. About 190 ships were chartered – up to the end of 1874 – to convey the 53,000 souls to their destination.

The exact number of vessels required for the transportation of the first 47,138 emigrants, was 167. All these passengers reached New Zealand – on the average of the whole number – with but a small mortality, and no lives were lost through shipwrecks, though one ship the "Surat" – from gross carelessness – went ashore on a part of the coast of the Province of Otago.

On board several ships the deaths from fever and other diseases were serious – but to a great extent were unavoidable. Sometimes the emigrants went on board with the germs of infectious diseases in their constitutions – no doctor could discover this on their embarkation: how therefore could the

disease be prevented from breaking out on board, and after the ship had been at sea for several days?

As regards the character or quality of the emigrants sent out, every possible care was taken in their selection. No doubt a few – very few, bad characters out of 53,000 crept in unknown and unpreventably by the Agency. No impartial or sane man could expect anything else. The fact was the Agency was expected to do and blamed for not doing, impossibilities. It was urged to send out a vast number of people – over 50,000 – who were to be the creme de la creme – of the labouring class. They were to be the pick of the people of the United Kingdom, who were to be selected, shipped and landed in New Zealand, with spotless characters and in perfect health: it was not in human nature to supply this demand. 260 Local Agents accepted men they considered good, whose certificates had to be, and were, scrutinized by officers at the London Agency; and if not properly filled up they were rejected; 320 advertisements appeared in 213 newspapers, and the labor in answering letters from applicants, applying in consequence of these advertisements, was enormous. It was the Local Agents, combined with advertising and placarding, that procured the great bulk of the emigrants, despatched to the Colony by the Agent-General. The special Agents sent home (excepting the one from Canterbury) could not, and did not do much good in the way of procuring emigrants.

I am sure my fellow-Colonists could not be aware of half or a quarter of the anxieties, difficulties and responsibilities attending the procuring and landing 50,000 emigrants in the various provinces of New Zealand, or they would never have complained so much nor have been so hard on the Agent-General; nor yet have winked at the bitter despatches penned by Mr. Vogel, and his satellite the Under Secretary for Immigration – a Mr. H – – - both of whom evidently abused the Agent-General (Plaintiffs Attorney) to screen themselves from public censure

and the consequence of their own acts, in sending home reckless orders for a vast body of emigrants to be procured and sent out in a foolishly short period of time. It is true the Agent General often laughed at these despatches, believing that some of them emanated from the Under Secretary, a discarded gentleman, whom the Doctor, while in Wellington, had publicly charged with having committed an u – – – 1 offence, while acting as naval instructor or chaplain on board Her Majesty's ship Euryalus. This Mr. Mallard, alias C. H – – - was an Irishman by birth, and one not likely to forget to avenge this affront – when an opportunity occurred, even if it were at the expense of truth and justice. In 1874 the Doctor showed me a letter which he had received, and which affirmed that Mr. H – – - had either been naval instructor or chaplain on board H.M.S. " Euryalus," and that his real name was "Mallard." Like some others of the same stamp, this person was one of those in office, entrusted with moulding the destinies of New Zealand.

That Dr. Featherston performed the duties appertaining to the office of Agent-General honestly, ably and zealously, I think, his enemies will admit: that he had his faults and committed mistakes while he held the appointment and exercised the functions of Agent-General, I believe will be acknowledged by his friends. He believed too much in himself, and consequently disliked being curbed or instructed by others. He loved unlimited control and the right to exercise an unfettered judgment. His want of business habits was a drawback to his success as an administrator; yet in this respect his excellent memory was of material assistance to him. I have known him when he could not prove an opinion of his to be correct, to say that his instinct told him it was right. He trusted too much, and interfered too little with his subordinates. Details of office work (except in figures, and he was voracious of them) he shunned. Some of his chief officers did pretty well what they liked, others of them, more conscientious, did more than their

share, or than they had a right to do. Mr. J. Morrison was an efficient officer, but one who liked the pay better than the work, and who aspired to be 'A. G.' Then Mr. Buller was sent home, ostensibly as Private Secretary to the Doctor, at a salary of £400 a-year, but really to bring out his book on the "Ornithology of New Zealand," and to pass as a barrister. Having this work to perform he could do but little work for the Agent-General. To Mr. Buller succeeded Mr. Cashel Hoey, 15 a courteous Irish gentleman, well qualified for Private Secretary, but not giving all his time to his office for £400 a-year. Before being appointed he made many solicitations for the office, and pressed the Agent-General so much, that at last he gave him the appointment subject to the approval of the Government. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, of Irish and Victorian celebrity, telegraphed (from London) to Mr. Vogel, "appoint Hoey, I will do as much for you another time," or words to that purpose. Further on, we shall see what effect this message produced. There was always something so very persuasive, insinuating, and bland in the manner of Mr. Hoey, who was a genuine Roman Catholic, and was so often recommending Catholic Doctors, and also schoolmasters – who looked like Catholic priests – to the Agent-General for appointments on board the emigrant ships, that one wondered at his zealousness for his faith, and thought him worthy of being a member of an ecclesiastical Order.

During the first part of the Doctor's term of office as Agent-General he lived at Croydon, ten miles from London. He resided there for twelve months, at the end of which, in the autumn of 1872, he removed his family to Boulogne, and afterwards went over to spend Christmas Day with them. On his return to London the next day he looked ill, and told me he felt very unwell, and continued getting worse till New Year's day, 1873, when he was confined to his apartment, which

he had furnished as a bedroom, adjoining his office. Soon after this, his condition became daily more critical. While in bed he dictated a telegram to his daughter Fanny, at Ashford in Kent. It was to the effect that he was ill, suffering acute pain, and wished her to come up as soon as she could to see him, and also to go with me to take a house. After this I found a suitable residence in Colvill Gardens, Bayswater: still he remained seriously ill at the offices. The late London Agent for the N.Z. Government, Mr. John Morrison, was still with us at a salary of £600 a-year, and the medical adviser of the Agent-General used to come every morning to his patient at the offices. One morning the Agent-General was worse than usual, and myself and Mr. Morrison waited the coming of his medical attendant with unusual anxiety. He came, saw Dr. Featherston, and came into the room where we were, and reported that his patient was dangerously ill, and that he might not be able to continue to sign cheques. This was an official duty that the Agent-General, I knew, was most unwilling to delegate to any one else. His medical adviser left, and Mr. M. and myself were left to ponder over the situation. He thought the Agent-General might not recover, and in the midst of our consultation, he suddenly exclaimed: – "Carter, the business of the office must not be stopped, somebody must stand in the breach: I will do it, and the Colony will back me up!" He was ready to sign cheques and quickly step into a dead man's shoes. But the Doctor did not die; he began to recover, and soon after a telegram arrived from the Colony, saying that Mr. Morrison's services were to be dispensed with; and so ended his connection with the office and with New Zealand – out of which he had made a large fortune.

Late in February the Agent-General was conveyed to his new residence. He was still far from being well, but soon after he returned to his office. He looked pale, more emaciated than usual, and informed me that he had made up his mind to

undergo a very severe operation for an aggravated case of fistula. I assisted him to arrange and lock away some of his private papers, and the remainder we tore up and burnt. He underwent the trying operation, and I am happy to say, recovered.

During his illness, some of the despatches he received from Mr. Vogel's colleagues were of a most annoying character. They evidently wished to torment him into resigning: this I can assure them he never intended to do. No doubt it would have suited Mr. Vogel and other gentlemen, supposed to be aspirants to his high office, if he had done so. Later on, (in the session of 1874) Mr. Vogel changed his tactics, and instead of abusing the Agent-General he praised him in a patronizing sort of a way, and blamed and found fault with his subordinates – which gave Mr. Vogel a poor reason for coming home to re-organize the Agent-General's department in London, just when experience, hard work and ability had placed it in a high state of efficiency. Had it been otherwise it would have collapsed under the gigantic task of selecting and sending out over 37,000 emigrants, during the year 1874. Besides this work the Office had to execute large orders for railway plant and material for public works, which, with the cost of emigration, involved the responsibility of expending on an average, nearly £100,000 per month. The actual expenditure by the A. G, in London, for emigration and public works alone, from December 1st, 1873, to November 31st, 1874, was, without fractions, £1,253,396. The annual cost of the Agent-General's establishment, including himself, five heads of departments, eighteen clerks, rent and taxes, at its highest rate, was about £6000. In the course of that year everyone in the office was over-worked. I felt so much out of health from general debility and a bad cough, that I asked the Agent-General to permit me to resign. He would not hear of it. He kindly gave me leave of absence to go to the sea-side; this I did, but at first not feeling much better, I sent in the following letter of resignation: –

"Sandlands, Bournemouth,
"July 7th, 1874

"Sir,

"I have the honor to inform you that in consequence of failing health, I feel it my duty to resign my appointment on your staff. Thanking you for the kindness and consideration I have received at your hands, and regretting – for the cause herein assigned – that I am unable to serve you further.

"I remain,
"Yours obediently,
"C. R. CARTER."
"To the Agent-General.

This resignation he refused to accept, and as at the end of July I felt much better in health, he prevailed on me to go back to the office again, where I now am, and from the duties of which I shall not regret to be relieved at an early period. In closing this subject I may be permitted to remark – that whatever faults Dr. Featherston may have displayed, or whatever mistakes he may have committed, it is my belief – taking all things into consideration – that no other gentleman would have performed the duties of Agent-General so faithfully or so well as he has done.

Now it is near the end of the year 1874. The "Doctor" is in good health, and smokes as much as usual. Borrowing continues to be the life and soul of New Zealand prosperity and of its statesmanship. Four millions more are authorized to be borrowed, and to crown all, "Julius the Magnificent," as the Melbourne Argus, styled him, is on his way to England, and is expected to arrive here very early in the first week of January, 1875. For what purpose? To put the Office in order, negotiate a great loan, and float great projects.

During the sitting of the last New Zealand Parliament – the session of 1874 – he with a great flourish of trumpets, introduced his wonderful scheme of making the South Sea the domain of New Zealand. There was to be a Zealandic "Dominion," in the south: similar to a Canadian Dominion in the north. He proposed to establish a gigantic Trading

Company, with a capital of one million sterling, to which New Zealand was to give a guarantee of five per cent, and in return was to have a guarantee of all the trade, of all the Polynesian islands in the Pacific Ocean. His plan was: –

"To colonize the islands of the South Pacific by offering a guarantee of five per cent, for forty years on the share capital.

"The object of the company to be to civilize and settle the South Sea Islands, by opening up a profitable production and trade in connexion with them. The company to establish factories and plantations at the different islands, and to acquire by purchase some already established, acquire lands and let the same on terms calculated to promote production. * * * The company will establish in New Zealand at least one cotton factory, at least one woollen factory, and at least one sugar refinery. All produce of the company obtained at the islands, or which is obtained from lands of the country, to be forwarded to New Zealand. All goods sent by the company to the islands to be shipped from New Zealand. All produce of the company to pay to the Government of New Zealand 5 per cent, royalty on all goods shipped to the islands other than those the produce and manufacture of New Zealand. The company to pay a royalty of 7 1/2 per cent. The ultimate object which I [Vogel] have in view is the establishment of the Polynesian Islands in the dominion, with New Zealand as the centre of the government."

Thus – as if poor New Zealand had not enough of Native difficulties and Colonial debts on its hands at home – Mr. Vogel was seeking for more abroad, and in the wide Pacific Ocean.

However, this modern South-Sea-bubble was not permitted to mature, for even with a subservient Parliament it would not be passed, and at near the end of the session, he was obliged to withdraw it.

Notwithstanding the introduction and withdrawal of this magnificent project, (which was applauded for its audacity, but ridiculed as chimerical by the London daily press, and condemned by the "Economist," as impracticable and as certain, if

started, to be unprofitable) Mr. Vogel was modest and conciliatory, for in last September, he telegraphed to the Agent-General to say: – "Am visiting England to confer with you. Expect arrive early January." In another telegram received the same month, he is going to reform the office, and it then seemed that he had sealed the fate of Mr. Hoey, in the following manner: – "Advise abstaining from employing Mr. Hoey. Government sending you excellent officer: act under you over departments. He will arrive in February, when Hoey entirely unnecessary." In November, 1874, the Agent-General received a letter from Mr. Vogel. It was dated from Sydney, and intended to conciliate the Doctor, it being, I understand, friendly in its tone, and apologetic for the severity of the despatches penned by himself to the Agent-General. I fear I cannot follow Mr. Vogel in anything, his character is so chamelion-like, and I am sure it would be dangerous to trust him, there being in him so little fixity of purpose.

When I look back to the first year of the Agent-General's period of office, and remember how kindly and considerately Mr. Vogel wrote to him, and hinted how he should like to be made a Knight, I cannot but smile; the more so when I know he got Governor Bowen to intercede for him, and also Mr. Fox, who, though not caring about such uncolonial honors for himself, yet asked the Doctor to intercede for Vogel, at the Colonial Office – not for a C.M.G – Companion of the order of St. Michael and St. George – this did not satisfy him, he wanted to be made "Sir Julius." The Secretary for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, demurred to this, as it was only usual to confer the title on those who had held high offices, such as Premier or Speaker of the House of Representatives. Dr. Featherston has been repeatedly offered a C.M.G., but has always refused to take anything but a K.C.M.G. – Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George. This would have been given him, I know, if he would only have accepted the first step – a C.M.G. but he

has persistently, and I think, unwisely declined, so far, to do so; yet he richly deserves it, far more so than Mr. Vogel, (already C.M.G.) who I am told on the best of authority, now aspires to be made a Baronet. Will this wish be realised? Time will show. He had better wait awhile, until his Public Works and Emigration schemes prove a success, and then he will have earned honors which I should not grudge him, although I disapprove of English titles being conferred on Colonists, who too often leave the Colony to air their titles abroad. If a Colonist is deserving of honors for good service to the public, let him receive his honors from the hands of the people whom he has benefited, and not from an English Colonial Secretary and his underlings, whose opinions and power in bestowing such honors are, to my knowledge, generally obtained by the disreputable means of back-stairs influences. Besides, what does New Zealand want with titles for her Worthies? A spurious aristocracy would be out of place in a country like New Zealand, whose political institutions are likely to be of a republican character. In an illustrated newspaper, called the "Australian Sketcher," of February 21st, 1874, there appeared an excellent portrait of Dr. Featherston, as Agent-General for New Zealand: this was accompanied by a brief memoir, in which it was stated: –

"Dr. Isaac Earl Featherston, the fourth son of Mr. Thomas Featherston, of Blackdean, Weardale, and Cotfield-house, in the county of Durham, was born on the 21st of March 1813. He received his early education at a private school at Tamworth,and subsequently in Italy. [This is not quite correct, he only travelled in Italy.] He afterwards studied at the Edinburgh University, where he graduated M. D. in 1836. In 1839 he married the daughter of Mr. A. Scott of Edinburgh: and in the following year, on account of ill health, he emigrated to New Zealand."

The above may be regarded as authentic, as most of the information was obtained from the Doctor himself, and as I also happen to know the gentleman who wrote the memoir.

In a former part of this work, I stated that I hoped some day to be able to introduce into, and stock, the Wairarapa – where my property is situated – some feathered songsters. This I have lived to do, for in the year 1873, I sent out a number of game and singing birds, of which, as may be seen in the extract below, a fair per centage arrived in safety,

"From the 'Alhambra,' which arrived yesterday, a large number of birds brought out from England in the 'Charlotte Gladstone,' by Mr. Bills, were landed. There are sixty-six in all, and include six pairs of goldfinches, six pairs of red poll linnets, six pairs of starlings, six pairs of chaffinches, four pairs of blackbirds, three pairs of thrushes, and two pairs of partridges. These have been imported for Mr. Charles R. Carter, upon whose property in the Wairarapa, we understand, they are to be let out. They are all fine birds, in splendid condition, and do not appear to have suffered during the voyage." – Wellington Evening Post, March 15th, 1873.

Most, if not all of the above imported birds, have done well and are increasing in numbers; since then I sent out more partridges, which have arrived, and were safely set at liberty. I also succeeded in landing, and freeing on my place, five rooks. These, I regret to say, have died or disappeared.

In concluding this chapter, I have but to remark that when the siege of Paris was raised, in 1871, I thought of my old French friend, Crapoix, and wondered if I sent him a small supply of provisions, if they would reach him and be of service to him. On the 3rd of February, 1871, I forwarded to Paris a box containing coffee, sugar, cheese, flour, Australian preserved meat, butter and biscuits. In about a week after, I heard that he had safely received it; and I am sure, that then and ever afterwards he felt, and also expressed himself, as very grateful for it, for he said they had been half-starved, on small pieces of black bread diet, during the ever memorable siege of Paris in question.

15 Who succeeded Duffy as Editor of the "Nation," when the latter emigrated to Australia, and whose wife is a well-known novel writer.

CHAPTER XXXVI. A CONTINUATION OF AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND LOANS.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A CONTINUATION OF AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND LOANS.

THE foregoing pages on this subject were written and printed in the year 1874. At first I thought that I would publish them at once in the form of a pamphlet. For various reasons, which it is not necessary to name here, I did not do so. However, I confess to being influenced by one reason. That was, that after the Colony had been legally committed – by its representatives in Parliament – to Mr. Vogel's gigantic Public Works scheme based upon loans, I considered it unwise to make statements calculated to damage, even to a small extent, the credit of the Colony. I thought it but right, under these circumstances, that his policy should have a fair trial.

Well, twelve months and more have elapsed since the time I have just alluded to; and has borrowing ceased, or has the projected and promised 1010 miles of railway been even half completed? The answer must be "No." When the session of 1874 met, only 89 miles were open for traffic, and 57 ready for it.

Since then considerable and important progress has been made in both road-making and railway construction, but not commensurate with the rapid increase of the public debt, which is increasing with such amazing velocity that – in view

of the near-at-hand elections for the House of Representatives. – I think no honest man, no bona fide Colonist who must bear the impending burden of taxation, should hesitate by his pen, his voice, or his vote – to protest against the continuance of a policy of borrowing so hollow, so reckless, so rotten and so utterly regardless of consequences and prudence – as that initiated, fostered and mainly fastened on the Colony by one man, and that man, not long ago Mr., but now Sir Julius Vogel.

The appearance of Sir George Grey in the political arena in Auckland at this particular juncture should be hailed with satisfaction. As a true and tried friend to the Colony he is worth a dozen Vogels. He can be trusted. His suggestions are entitled to our highest consideration; and even if some of us do not entirely agree with him on Provincial topics – his opinions, on these matters, will still command our respect.

Before entering further into my continuation statement, let me here pause to say that I think it but right, as I have given expression – in the first part of this pamphlet – to certain opinions and suggested certain partial results as the fruits of Mr. Vogel's policy, up to 1874, that I should now briefly refer to one or two of them, and see how far they have been borne out by facts which have since occurred.

At page 35, I state that at the time the General Assembly meet in 1874 "the total public debt of the Colony would reach the formidable sum of £12,500,000." The actual amount stated by Mr. Vogel in his financial statement of 1874 was, £12,509,546.

At page 44, I express an opinion that thousands of immigrants might be landed in N.Z. during the winter of 1874, and that there might not, under the then ordinary circumstances of the Colony, be plenty of work and high wages for them, and some of them might even leave the Colony.

When the Government saw the mess they had made by introducing, in the depth of winter, a deluge of immigrants, they

certainly made great exertions, and by conveying the immigrants into the interior, and by finding them employment at high rates of wages they mitigated their helpless condition and prevented them from raising the cry of want of employment, and thus paralyzing the exertions being made at home to induce extensive emigration to New Zealand. But at what a lavish expenditure of cash this was effected, and as it has since been continued, it has now become a great financial difficulty.

Notwithstanding these exertions and the silence of the greater portion of the New Zealand press, there was as I suggested there might be, discontent and a lowering of wages amongst the immigrants with whom the Colony was flooded during the wet winter of 1874, as the following extracts from English and Colonial newspapers, which have been forwarded to me, prove.

First, let me quote the report made for the month of August, and sent by the Emigration Agent at Canterbury to the Government at Wellington. It was as follows: – "The large number of mechanics and tradesmen who have arrived during the last three months has been in excess of the demand, and the consequence has been that a number have been put on temporarily at labouring work. The wages being 5s. per day, and the men not fitted for the work, some discontent has arisen." The italics are my own, and are significant of carpenters being paid 5s. per day when they were led to expect 10s.

The following is an extract from a letter in the "Canterbury Weekly Press" of July 18th, 1874.

EMPLOYMENT.

To the Editor of the Press.

"SIR, – Would you kindly insert the following 'the cry of Christchurch;' what is the cry that you hear as you walk through the streets of the city? It is, 'Have you got a job

yet? and you have no need to stop to hear the answer, 'No!' And what is the cause of this cry? Why, the overflow of immigrants; and so that some [same] cry will resound through the streets while things go on as they are."

Below is an extract from the London "Building News."

"NEW ZEALAND. – A correspondent and subscriber writes to us advising intending emigrants to New Zealand in the building trades to stay at home. He says carpenters and other mechanics are glad to be allowed to work on the roads at five shillings a day. Since the last ship arrived wages fell two shillings a day, and (Aug., 19) two more ships are shortly expected. Provisions are very dear, and people are worse off than those at home."

I give, under, a portion of a letter that appeared in another English paper: –

EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND;

To the Editor of "The Oxford Times."

"SIR. – The following extract from a New Zealand letter, (dated July 26th, 1874) coming as it does from a well informed and thoroughly reliable source, conveys a serious warning to agricultural labourers intending to emigrate. For their sake I would wish it to appear in your columns.

"Your obedient servant, A. G.
"Nov. 3, 1874:

"I have been expecting to see some one from the country round Oxford among the numbers of immigrants coming in every week. We have had nearly twenty thousand landed in the Colony during the past six months, and one or two ships were to bring the Union men from Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. More than 800 have come into Lyttelton the last week, and there were some hundreds before being fed and maintained by Government, for there was no work to be had, and what they will do I cannot think. It is very badly managed. If these numbers had been spread over two years it would have been all right, but to pour thousands of labourers into the country in the middle of winter where

there was not labour to be found for many that were already here seems to me like madness. I feel sorry for these poor creatures as we pass by the Barracks and notice their wretched looks."

I quite admit that the above state of affairs was confined to the winter of 1874, and that since then the immigrant labour in question has been absorbed – by throwing open as many public works as possible, and borrowing and spending money in vast amounts in a wasteful manner, and, as I say at page 45, this inflated prosperity may be continued yet longer if yet more large amounts of borrowed money are forthcoming. The Colony ought to know the number and cost of the labouring men now employed on public works by the Government, and by Government contractors and sub contractors. A return of this kind would be exceedingly interesting, as showing how fast the borrowed money has been going since the session of 1874.

At page 46, I say that by the end of the year 1878, our Colonial and Provincial debts will amount to £17,000,000; already in 1875, they are sixteen and a half millions, and the annual interest is nearly £950,000. I see now that at the end of 1878, our debt will be at least £18,000,000.

Specially I wish to confine myself to our Colonial debt. This at the Financial year 1874, had grown up to the tall sum of £12,509,546, requiring an annual amount for interest and sinking fund of £777,796 4s. 10d. Our Parliament of 1874 decreed that four millions sterling more were required and must be borrowed.

"That will last us four years," said some discreet persons; "perhaps a million a year will be raised," timidly remarked others; but Mr. Vogel had his own idea of what was best for himself if not for the Colony. He loves big ideas and big figures, and he wanted to go home, his strength was over-taxed, his health was failing; but nothing but the foggy atmosphere of London seemed likely to suit his complaint.

No one doubted his having worked very hard and his requiring rest to recruit his health; but very few persons thought a journey to England needful for that purpose – particularly when his Public Works scheme was in full swing and approaching a crucial test. Still home he would hasten, and there was an end to it. The Captain would leave his ship – when she was in danger – to the charge of the crew, and there was no one to prevent him doing so. Go he would, and go he did. He had decreed it, and who was there to oppose it? The handwriting was upon the wall. The finger of Mr. Vogel had traced it, and no one dared to obliterate it.

So Mr. Vogel departed for England with the Colony at his back, the bank of New Zealand round his neck, a carte blanche in one pocket, and a bill for four millions sterling in the other. He duly arrived in England towards the close of the month of January, 1875. At this time, I am informed, and I am sorry to say, he was suffering from a severe attack of gout.

When Mr. Vogel was in New Zealand he held three portfolios. He seemed partial to the number three. He introduced several loan bills: the last one he called "number three." It was for four millions.

In London he arrived with a private secretary for himself; he also took home another secretary for the Agent-General. The latter, I believe, had already a private secretary in his office. Thus Mr. Vogel made up his magical number three. His own private secretary was, no doubt, indefatigable in finding him information, and was very useful in feeding certain London and New Zealand journals with matter explanatory and laudatory of the great things his Master did for the good of the Colony. I don't remember either Mr. Wood or the Hon. W. Fitzherbert being allowed private secretaries when they went on monetary missions to England. And I certainly do protest against any New Zealand Minister having such close relations with the press, as Mr. Vogel has had. To me, it appears most

unconstitutional and corrupting in its influences. More than this, how can we fairly forbid other gentlemen in the Civil Service of New Zealand from communicating articles or information to the newspapers – if their Superiors are permitted to do so?

One would think that the gentleman whom Mr. Vogel selected and took home with him as Secretary to the Agent-General's Establishment in London, must have found his appointment a most unnecessary one, though it cost the Colony £800 a year; and he must have arrived in London at a time to find, as the result of past experience, the offices in good working order; but, that in both the Public Works and Emigration department, there were signs of a coming to the end of their work – for the great bulk of the emigrants ordered had been sent out, and, I am informed by a high authority, the greater part of the orders for plant and material was executed. This is but another instance how dearly the Colony has to pay for the whims of one man who fancies he is a statesman – when he is only a Borrower and Spender of Money.

Perhaps Mr. V. wished to establish a sort of double-headed London Agency – a large head and a small one; a sort of double-barrelled-gun arrangement – with a long barrel and a short one; if he did, from a mental and physical point of view, he succeeded admirably.

I have here to chronicle the year 1874-5 as a very happy year for New Zealand. There were no Native disturbances, no political fighting, and no want of money: the supply of the latter was very abundant; still it was hardly sufficient to meet the demand for it; but this was easily remedied by Mr. Vogel's appeal to the London money market for four millions sterling, and the cities Auckland and Dunedin's successful applications to the same quarter for several hundreds of thousands. Add to these brilliant feats of borrowing, that the Bank of New Zealand started agencies in Melbourne and Sydney to tap the golden treasures

of Australia – my readers will be apt to believe that New Zealand had become, not exactly the money market of the world, but a market in which money conld be disposed of more readily than in any other. Boys and girls will long remember this happy era, for it was the year in which Pa's and Ma's increased the number of their servants, and invested in four-wheelers. Labouring men will find comfort in thinking of a shilling an hour as fair pay, and mechanics at twelve and fourteen shillings per day of eight hours will do the same. Some Provincial Governments were not behind the age, for they were pleasantly employed in anticipating the future by getting rid of the public landed estates, and spending the proceeds as quickly as possible. The gentlemen composing these petty Parliamentary Governments – the champions of Provincialism – have had the good fortune to be in possession of a well-stocked shop, and they have been adroitly employed, in selling off their goods in order that their successors (their constituents) may not have the means wherewith to pay future rent and taxes.

In discussing the policy of Mr. Vogel's second, and, let us expect, his last mission to England, it must be kept in mind that he had always great ideas in his head. There was one idea bigger than all the rest. It was the four-million loan idea which he had got passed by the New Zealand House of Commons; but there was yet a greater and grander idea to be achieved. His rule in our Colony had been long and triumphant – it might not last much longer, and why not do the biggest of the big things he had yet done and crown his New Zealand loan edifice with a gold crown; a crown weighing nearly 84,000 pounds troy weight, and worth about four millions sterling? So he went home to do three things – raise a great loan, negotiate for a new mail service, and contract for laying a submarine cable between New Zealand and Australia – all of which important services he accomplished

– their advantages have yet to be proved – but all of which, the public well know, it was part of the business of our Agent-General to do, and all of which, I say could have been done with much more honour, credit and profit to the Colony by Dr. Featherston (in conjunction with the Crown Agents for the colonies) than by Mr. Julius Vogel.

It would seem that when Mr. Vogel had been a little time in London, he had made up his mind to dispense with the services of two influential gentlemen – the Agents for the Crown Colonies, who in negotiating all our recent heavy loans have acted for the Colony so well and economically – as principal agents for floating any portion or all our Four Million Loan.

No doubt Mr. Vogel consulted the Crown Agents and the Agent-General. Still the result was the former gentleman had his way, a contractor of his liking was found, and then Stock Exchange tactics and workings began as follows: – On the 24th of February, 1875, fhe city article in the Times contained the following announcement. – "We understand that a leading financial house will introduce a New Zealand loan for about £4,000,000 upon this market at no distant date." On the same day New Zealand consolidated 5. p.c. bonds were quoted at 104 to 105 and our five-thirties 4 1/2 p.c's at 96 to 97. On the next day, the 25th, the same securities, and in the same order, stood at 103 to 104, and 95 to 96. The money article of the Times of the 26th put forth a more important statement. It was as follows: – "The contract for the New Zealand Loan was signed last night with Messrs. Rothschild. It is, we believe, to be a 4 1/2 per cent, loan, issued at or about 94." During the 27th our 6 p.c. bonds fell one per cent, and the five-thirties receded 1/2 and were quoted at the lowest point reached, viz. 94 1/2. The evening papers of the same day contained the advertisement calling for tenders for the four million loan at 94. The Times of the 1st of March gave a precis of the

prospectus of this loan in the following terms. "The prospectus of the New Zealand Immigration and Public Works Loan for £4,000,000 nominal has been issued to-day by Messrs. Rothschild. As we stated two days ago, the issue price is £94 per cent., or £93 if the whole bond is paid up on allotment, instead of in the six instalments." The prospectus stated that the subscription lists would be open on Monday, March 1st, and closed Tuesday, March 2nd. The Times of the 3rd made no statement as to the total amount applied for, but simply said, "The new issue was very firm at 1/4 premium;" but it was understood that the whole of the loan had been liberally subscribed for. The terms on which it was offered were simply these. – The price of each £100 bond was fixed at £94 and a discount of 5 per cent, per annum was allowed on all instalments paid in advance, and as it is known that by far the greatest portion of the whole loan was at once paid up in full, this transaction at once reduced the price to nearly 93. The reduction did not stop here, for there was the contractor's commission of two per cent, to be deducted, which expensive operation completed, left the price reduced about 91. It was understood that the great and respectable Financial House of Messrs, Rothschild took the loan "firm," that is they guaranteed that the New Zealand Government should receive 91. At the same time it was reported that they had sold portions of it to subcontractors at a lower price, which really meant that they had "sub-syndicated" it at 92. Probably owing to this "subsyndicating" a quotation in the daily lists was, at the time, refused to the loan by the members of the Stock Exchange Committee, which action depreciated its value, made it unfortunate for the investors, and gave this great loan transaction an aspect one cannot contemplate with satisfaction. Besides, it is the first time that a New Zealand loan, of over a million sterling, has been taken out of the ordinary agencies for floating the same: and when New Zealand Colonists read the recent discreditable

disclosures made before the Foreign Loan Committee – as to the relations between some loan contractors and the persons who introduced loan schemes to them – they will probably want to have full and complete information respecting the preliminary proceedings and completion of the four million loan contract – which no doubt Sir Julius will willingly furnish.

It is not right, it is not sound policy to be selling our loans to any contractors. It looks too much like following the bad example of semi-bankrupt states like those of Turkey, Spain, Egypt, and nearly all the South American Republics.

On the other hand, it may be said the price obtained, 91, was not a very low one – as the money must be had at once. This latter reason, to me, does not appear to have been the case, but at all events it is quite apparent that the market was taken by surprise and forced with a great New N.Z. Loan.

Again, the whole of the instalments were paid into one bank. Was this prudent? and as we are now paying 5 per cent, for the great paid up portion of the loan, and on an average are likely only to receive 2 for its use, will any of Sir Julius Vogel's supporters affirm it was a profitable transaction, It was simply the fruits of borrowing money we did not want and could not use.

But what concerns us most is the results of the Loan. Let us examine them in an impartial spirit. Let us critically submit the loan-figures to a scrutiny and see what credit or discredit is due to our Financial Negotiator and Premier.

According to a printed report of a statement made by Mr. Vogel during the session of 1874, the million and a half (borrowed in 1874) was offered to the public in London at 98, but with allowances, deductions andconcessions it netted only £95 14s. 2d. Now is it not fair to assume that this testing of the market made our £100 4 1/2 per cent, bonds worth £95 14s. 2d. and that if we had asked, say, for only two millions, we might have

obtained them at one per cent, less or rather say 94 1/2; and having abstained from further borrowing for twelve months, we could then have easily obtained a similar amount of two millions at the same price, or at all events 93?

But a contrary policy was pursued by our principal Financial Agent. The investing public, brokers and holders of our bonds were startled by the boldness, it might be termed audacity, of a population of 330,000 persons proposing to raise a loan of four millions sterling in one year. On good authority I am told that an eminent City Broker asked, "Why, will two millions not do for you?" The answer was, in effect, "I must have four millions." This was conclusive. The flotation of the four million loan was effected at a price far below what might have been obtained if it had been divided into two equal parts and a year had elapsed between the raising of the two.

I will now, briefly, endeavour to show the loss the Colony has sustained by the way Mr. Vogel raised the loan in question. I appraise its value at £94 the £100 bond.

In the first place the Bank of New Zealand will probably have, on an average for one year, a sum equal at least to £1,000,000 to invest in good bills or what they like on their account. For the use of this large amount, I understand they are to pay the Government the current bank rate less 3/4 per cent, allowed them as their commission (which is rather low than excessive); consequently with the bank rate at 3 1/2 the Colony will be paid 2 3/4, at 3 it will receive 2 1/4 per cent, and at 2 it will nett only 1 1/4 on money it has borrowed at 5. This, I think, will show a loss of, say, 3 per cent., equal to £30,000.

Then as the loan should have brought 94 but was sold to yield 91 – there is a second loss of £120,000, and an increase in the annual charge for interest of about three shillings per cent.

The general result of the transaction is more glaringly

unsatisfactory; the Colony wanted £4,000,000, but is obliged to submit to a discount of nine per cent, and gets only £3,640,000.

More than this, each £100 bears interest at the rate of 4 1/2 per cent, per annum: but the interest the Colony has to pay on the amount it actually received, viz. £91, is £4. 18s. 10 3/4d. or say £4 19s. – nearly 5 per cent. Besides this annual charge for thirty years (at the expiration of which this loan must be redeemed) there will be a bonus of £9 to pay to make up the difference between £91 the sum lent and the £100 to be paid at the end of the term just named. This £9, spread over thirty years, is equal to a yearly payment of six shillings, which added to the interest, £4 19s., makes a total of £5 5s. as the real annual charge on Mr. Vogel's loan of four millions sterling.

The following recapitulatory statement shows the results of disposing of a four-million loan at £91 and £94 for each £100 debenture.

At 91, the total yield would be......... £3,640,000
" 94 " " " ......... 3,760,000
Difference 120,000

At 91, the annual charge, for interest, on each £100 would be £4 18 11
" 94 " " " " 4 15 9
Difference 0 3 2

At 91, the annual bonus on each £100 for 30 years would be £0 6 0
" 94, " " " " 0 4 0
Difference 0 2 0

The above calculation indicates –

Firstly, a totalloss of principal amounting to £120,000 0 0
Secondly, an increase in the annual interest of 6,333 6 8
Thirdly, " " " bonus 4,000 0 0
Fourthly I may add the probable loss on the London investment of the four millions sterling, as, say, – 30,000 0 0

Probably Sir Julius, not being a cautious man, did not trouble himself about the future value of money on the London Stock Exchange. He did not contemplate that, in August 1875, the Bank rate would be two per cent., that the amount of coin and bullion in the Bank of England would be £29,393,000, a sum greater than was ever known to be lodged there, and that, of money, there would be a glut instead of a scarcity. If he did anticipate these results he was foolish to ask for four millions all at once, and also in a hurry and a state of flurry: if he did not it is a sad proof of how completely he failed to estimate and gauge the future of the London Money Market as it developed itself in the year 1875.

At the end of the pamphlet I ask, "Is Mr. Vogel to be knighted for this?" the answer has come, "that he has been knighted." And it now but remains for his faithful followers and ardent admirers to subscribe money and cause a statue to be erected to perpetuate the memory of the great things he has done for New Zealand, and more particularly for himself. If they are grateful and do have it reared, I trust the memorial of departed greatness may be a classical one; a sort of "Apollo Belvedere." Suppose it is made to represent him as he appeared pulling a bow at one of Governor Bowen's archery meetings; and on the pedestal is inscribed: –

THE KNIGHT OF THE "UNERRING BOW." A CLEVER MAN; BUT FULL OF VANITY AND DESTITUTE OF COMMON SENSE AND PRUDENCE.

Sir Julius was a considerable time in London before he was made a Knight: on the best of authority I am informed that great pressure had to be used to secure it before the celebration of the Queen's birthday took place.

At all events Sir Julius went on the Continent at the end of June last. Perhaps to air his title, in the company of petty German Dukes, at celebrated German watering places like those of Wildsbad and Homburg. I do not object to even this: but

in the meantime his colleagues and the general assembly were seriously inconvenienced by his unexpected absence, for it was of vital importance that he should be in the Colony to make his financial statement in last July, or even August or September.

Had he not been permitted to go to England this would not have occurred. I feel perfectly humiliated when I think how this man has been able to rule, use and trifle with the people of New Zealand, who have hitherto borne a high character for prudence and intelligence. When will the Colonists open their eyes to his true character and the critical state of the Colony? Before the time the new General Assembly may be expected to meet in July, 1876 – if the present rate of expenditure continues – the whole of the four millions sterling will be spent. "What must be done?" will then be asked; "Borrow more," the reckless will reply. Better not try it so soon. Our credit in London is very weak, and the Money Market there is glutted with our Bonds. To borrow again we must pay dearer still. The Rothschilds have had enough of N.Z. loans, and the brokers who used to act for and in concert with the Agents of the Crown Colonies are, it appears, offended.

This is not encouraging: but if we will only manfully look the financial difficulties a-head – in the face – we may surmount them, but not without passing through critical times, and a period of probation which shall teach us to live without excessive borrowing.

Retrenchment, economy and prudence are now required to place New Zealand's political and financial affairs on a sound footing: but these measures may have also to be supplemented by the abolition of our expensive Provincial Governments, and the imposition of an income, a property or a land tax. Which of the two – out of these four suggestions – the settlers in New Zealand like best, I fear they will have no other alternative but to accept, within the next two years.

There is, I believe, the nest-egg of £800,000 of the million

of guaranteed debentures, still intact. This may yet prove of invaluable service to the Colony – if not at once squandered in unremunerative works. There is also £500,000 in debentures yet unsold.

While I deprecate further borrowing, I admit that it would be unwise to stop, all at once, the progress of important public works now going on, and unfair to the immigrants whom we have introduced to complete them – at the same time I aver, that the borrowing power of the Colony has been so weakened by the last great loan operation performed by Sir Julius, that it will be extremely difficult to float a loan of even half the amount of our last one. Worse than this may happen, if a pledge – even a verbal one – has been given to Messrs. Rothschild that New Zealand will not resort to the London Money Market, for another loan, during the next two years. I have good reasons to believe that some such assurance has been given.

I presume the first business of the New House, which will meet in the year 1876, will be to appoint a Committee to enquire into the state of the Colony. Many concealments will then be unearthed, and the public will be startled with revealments which will, perhaps, restore them to their sober senses.

If the Members in the New Parliament truly represent the interests of the people of New Zealand they will declare their policy to be Economy and Retrenchment, and carry it out without fear or favour. Even if they do this, and find the Colony still cannot go on without resorting to raising more money by loans, they will act wisely and prudently by setting a limit to borrowing, and publicly announce that at the end of 1876 they will require a loan of only £1,000,000, and at the end of 1877 another of a similar amount. This, I submit, might enable the Colony to pull through its pressing financial requirements and embarrassments; and would also tend to increase the confidence of London capitalists in the financial

strength and resources of the Colony. To borrow to this extent – and including the realization of the £800,000 guaranteed bonds and the £500,000 worth of unguaranteed debentures – will bring the Public Debts of New Zealand up to the enormous sum of twenty millions sterling in 1878, involving an annual charge, for interest and sinking funds, of nearly eleven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling.

This is much in excess of my suggested results at the end of the first portion of this pamphlet, and goes to prove, clearly, that I have underrated rather than over-estimated the great financial difficulties we have yet to contend with in connection with the Public Works and Immigration schemes. It would be a great financial relief to the Colony if the latter were entirely suspended.

Since the above remarks were written, our Parliamentary session of 1875 has been held. It will be recorded in the Constitutional History of New Zealand as a memorable one. In the absenceof Sir Julius Vogel, Major Atkinson was Treasurer, and delivered the usual financial statement. Soon the members of the General Assembly discovered the Financial situation to be most unpleasant to contemplate. For the service of the financial year 1875-6 a great deficit stared the Government in the face. What was to be done was soon decided; and abolish the Provinces and seize their Land Funds, became the motto of the majority in the House of Representatives. One man's pockets contained money; another man's pockets were empty. This inequality had to be adjusted; so a legal transfer of the former to the latter was speedily effected, and thus was equal justice meted out – for the man that was rich became poor, and the man that was poor became rich. This accomplished, a large surplus of income over expenditure was trumpeted forth to the world as a great fact and a consummate act of statesmanship.

Thus were Provincial Institutions hurriedly and indecorously consigned to their grave after a chequered, but, on the whole, beneficial existence of twenty-two years. The Bill for their abolition was, on its second reading, carried by a majority of 52 to 17.

I do not see what else could have been done to increase the revenue – except the imposition of a Land, an Income, or perhaps a Sheep tax. But, after this act of Legislation, don't talk about the Public Works and Immigration Scheme being a success, when it is plain to the commonest understanding that, when the time has arrived for it to increase our resources, it is diminishing them; vide the absorption of the Land fund from imperious necessity; but also under specious pretences which will not bear scrutiny.

Nearly a quarter of a million sterling, obtained from the Land fund for the payment of interest on loans, must now be remitted to England instead of being expended in the Provinces on Public Works. The Land Fund has advanced far in the process of exhaustion. The best of the Crown Lands are sold, alienated for ever. The remainder is a diminishing quantity. So will the revenue from it. In some of the Provinces the annual income from this source is insignificant, and likely to be nearly all absorbed in local charges, such as the cost of surveys and management, &c.; still it will serve a present purpose – it will bolster up a demoralizing and corrupting system of Public Works and prevent the Jewlian Bubble from bursting, till the Colony suffers from blighted credit and the severe pressure of a Foreign debt of £20,000,000.

In conclusion, if Sir Julius Vogel, when he returns to the Colony, would but collect together all his adventurous and needy political associates, I am sure the public of New Zealand would not object to he and they taking their departure to some other green country: even though they took with them their carpet bags loaded with contents much more valuable than those which they brought with them.

CHAPTER XXXVII. BEGINNING OF THE LAST CHAPTER...

CHAPTER XXXVII.

BEGINNING OF THE LAST CHAPTER – MR. VOGEL'S SOUTH SEA ISLANDS SCHEME – THE PREMIER OF NEW ZEALAND IN LONDON – ARRIVAL OF A NEW SECRETARY – HOW THE GREAT LOAN WAS RAISED – MR. VOGEL AT THE OFFICES – MY INTERVIEW WITH A GREAT MAN – HIS MARBLE BUST – A LETTER RESPECTING HIM – HIS APPETITE – MY RESIGNATION – SIR JULIUS RETURNS TO LONDON – HIS FINANCIAL PERPLEXITY – AN IMPORTANT TELEGRAM – CONCLUSION.

AT length I have arrived at the beginning of the last chapter of the third volume of my Autobiography. Time presses, and my remarks are now intended to be brief. I am still an official at 7, Westminster Chambers, but purpose, shortly, giving up my appointment, in the hopes of seeing New Zealand again.

I have formed so many plans in my life-time, and so many of them I have not been able to carry out, that now I propose to float through the remainder of my existence guided by the current of events as they arise.

At page 237 of this volume I speak of Mr. Vogel's scheme for colonising the South Sea Islands. At that time I was not aware that he had won over to his views, on this and other subjects, Sir James Ferguson, the then Governor of New Zealand. However, such was the case.

To the surprise of many, Sir James Ferguson resigned his

Governorship during the year 1874, and was succeeded by the Marquis of Normanby – who in Wellington had a "Lord for his private secretary, and was born in the year 1819.

Sir James Ferguson gave as his reasons for resigning, that he was desirous of entering the British Parliament, as his friends, the Conservatives, were once more in power. I am inclined to think, that, in warmly supporting Mr. Vogel's proposed bubble scheme, he expected a Directorship, if not the Chairmanship of a London Company to be formed with the object of carrying it out. If so it does not speak well for his judgment or his abilities. I do know he was anxious for Directorships, for directly he arrived in London he was announced as having joined the board of direction of a half-bankrupt company called the Emigrants' and Colonists' Aid Corporation, which was trading and living on English and New Zealand credulity.

He, Sir James, may have been piqued at Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of New South Wales, being appointed by the Imperial Government, instead of himself to annex the Feegee (or Figi) islands to the British Empire. Was this the case? I ask this question, but cannot positively answer it. At all events I do now know that Mr. Vogel telegraphed to the Agent-General in London for the latter to use his influence with the Colonial Office to prevent New South Wales taking the lead in the matter instead of New Zealand. The telegram was received in London on the 25th of October, 1874, and ran thus: –

"Sydney papers state Fiji will be governed from Sydney. Great slight to New Zealand; which nearer to Fiji – besides having knowledge of governing native races in which Sydney quite deficient. Try get decision delayed till Governor Ferguson arrives."

These intrigues had no effect on the Imperial Government, which annexed the Fiji islands to the Empire – regardless of the forward suggestion made by Mr. Julius Vogel.

Mr. Vogel soon followed Sir James Ferguson to England;

but not before having – in company with other Auckland M.H.R.'s – his effigy publicly burnt in that city – and afterwards on the eve of his preparation, via Sydney and Suez – he abruptly quitted an angry public meeting of his Auckland constituents without replying to their questions.

On the 24th of December, 1874, Mr. Vogel, the Premier of New Zealand, was expected and might have then arrived in London; but he lingered on the continent at Florence and Paris, and was further delayed by an attack of gout at the latter place. However, he arrived there on the 28th of January, 1875, and took up his abode at 49, George Street, Baker Street. Here he was very unwell, not suffering much pain, but unable to walk, except from one chair to another close at hand. Gradually he got better, and finally, and for the first time on the 3rd of March came to the office on crutches. His room door was opposite to that of mine. So I saw a good deal of him. The "Doctor" came down stairs to see and ask me if the room was ready for the "great man." I replied "Yes!" He then went in to see Vogel, and found his only topic of conversation was "loans."

On the 2nd of January Mr. Kennaway came to the office, but really did not commence business till six weeks afterwards. It was amusing to see how the Agent-General played with him. The latter had evidently made up his mind not to part with his private secretary, Mr. Hoey, whose fate appeared to be sealed, as I mentioned at page 238. The A.-G. was willing to allow Mr. K. to control the Emigration or Public Works Departments down-stairs; but upstairs – where the former, his private secretary and chief clerk were – must not be interfered with. Mr. K. – whose official position, under an appointment signed by the Governor, was secretary to the Agent-General – submitted to the fates above and descended to the position assigned to him below, where he came into contact with four heads of departments, of whom I was one.

We all privately resented his interference, which really impeded the business of the office instead of forwarding it. In short – though he could not help it – his appointment was a most useless one. I protested to the A.-G. against being placed under him, and asked to leave in June last but the A.-G. would not consent to this. Mr. Kennaway, however, did not further interfere with me and seemed wishful to make himself useful in the office; and so he would, if there had been anything suiting his position for him to do. Another sore point with the four officers in question was that while each of them had worked hard for nearly four years to raise the establishment to its present state of efficiency, and were severally in receipt of salaries varying from £300 to £400 a year, Mr. Kennaway was to receive £800 for three years and to have much less work than any of them had to get through, and that work they had to teach him how to do. There was one fault or want in the organization of the office – this was a want of proper discipline. The clerks did too much as they liked, but this in a great measure arose from every one in the office considering the service and their engagements of a very temporary nature. In fact, half the number of our clerks had once been under a month's notice to leave at last Christmas, then Mr. Vogel after his arrival gave orders to send out 23,000 emigrants in the period between 30th of April last, and 31st of May next. Now the Ministers, his colleagues in the Colony, have countermanded – for once – his orders, and only 13,000 are to be sent. At the same time, probably, 70,000, at least, will, altogether, have then been forwarded; and as the Agent-General wishes to complete the last order at once, it is likely that nearly the whole 13,000 will be sent out this year. From July 29th, 1871, to September 30th, 1875, the total number of Emigrants despatched to New Zealand by the Agent-General – during the period I was with him – was a little over 67,000. Up to June 30th, 1875, the nationalities of those sent out were as follows: –

English, 34,166 Welsh, 590 Swedes, 865
Scotch, 9,671 Germans, 1,668 Norwegians, 885
Irish, 12,350 Danes, 1,306 Other countries, 1,718
Various, 78 Total number of souls, 63,297

From June 3Oth, 1872, to August 31st, 1875, the Agent-General expended on Emigration and Public Works, £2,439,587.

How the four-million loan was negotiated I have stated in a previous chapter, but some things which took place behind the scenes I have here to briefly relate. Dr. Featherston told me that Mr. Vogel was the first to open negotiations with the Messrs. Rothschild, and just before the arrangements with that Firm were completed, the Agent-General, Dr. Featherston, Mr. Vogel, and the Agents for the Crown Colonies held a meeting of themselves – when Mr. Vogel proposed that Messrs. Rothschild should have the Loan at £88 for each £100. The A.-G. protested against this being done, as he believed other brokers would float it for a larger amount than £88, so the great brokers, Scrimgeour & Co., were next applied to. They were willing to place two millions at once, at the price of 91, and another two millions twelve months afterwards at the same price. Suddenly Mr. Vogel withdrew from the offer made by Scrimgeour & Co. and once more placed the whole loan in the hands of the Messrs. Rothschild – who, feeling annoyed that other brokers had been placed in competition with them, and likely to finish a loan contract begun with their Firm – still claimed the right to negotiate it. Dr. Featherston at a meeting with the Rothschilds then proposed that the price this Firm might have the loan at should be handed in a letter to Rothschild by Mr. Vogel in the presence of Dr. Featherston. This was done, and the price, 91, was accepted by the great Financial Jew House. Thus was Dr. F, I consider, the means of saving the difference between 88 and 91, or in all a sum of £120,000. I think, that as the originator and prime mover in getting this great loan through the N.Z. House of Parliament was a Jew, and the contractors and floaters of this

loan were Israelites, it may not be inappropriate, to distinguish it from other loans, to call it the "Jews' Loan."

On the 10th of March Mr. Vogel made his second appearance at the office. He was also there on the two succeeding days. He seemed in good spirits; his legs might be a little weak, but his mind was active, and his appetite keen. On this occasion he had lunch brought into his room from the restaurant below, and attached to Westminster Chambers: he seemed to enjoy that lunch very much. Undoubtedly he was a capital trencher-man. The waiter brought him two large chops, some potatoes and bread, with soda water and brandy, the whole of which he consumed; yet he had to go home and dine at six o'clock on the same evening.

On the 12th of April, at twelve at noon, I was sent for by the great man to confer with him about emigration matters at 87, Gloucester Place, to which furnished house he had removed. I was there at the time indicated. His Japanese boy servant admitted me, and in broken English told me Mr. Vogel was ill in bed from a fresh attack of gout. I sent my name up. "Tell Mr. Carter that I will see him in a quarter of an hour," was the reply brought down.

I waited one hour and a quarter, when a gentleman entered the room where I was sitting. His clothes were spotted with white clay marks. He entered into conversation with me, and said he had been up to Mr. Yogel's bedroom to take his model from which to sculpture a marble bust. This sculptor was Mr. Charles Summers, the eminent artist, who has his studio in Rome. He was very affable. "Did you model him from his naked bust?" I enquired. "No!" he said, "I stood about six feet away from him, looked at him and the shape of his head and chest, and then, as he sat upright in bed, I roughly moulded his figure in clay and adding a patch of clay here and there with my fingers I pressed it into the form of his bust." "He will have to give me five or six sittings more," he

continued. Mr. Summers and myself became friends in talking about Rome, and he gave me his address in order that I might call upon him if ever I again paid a visit to the city of Rome.

I was next ushered into the presence of greatness in bed. His bedroom was at the top of the house. As I entered he bade me good morning, and motioned with his hand for me to be seated. He was very deaf, and as was his wont, or custom, held one hand, like a fan, up to his ear, but with a voice pitched high he heard well enough. He was sitting upright in bed, with pillows at his back, and covered up to his hips with the bed clothes. He was attired in his night shirt, which was not remarkably clean, and was soiled with the yellow stains of eggs and other viands and liquids. He looked well enough but dark and swarthy. The hair of his head and his long beard appeared neglected, and here and there grey hairs were visible. I noticed the wood frame on which was the bust model just commenced, and with a white sheet thrown over it, it looked very like a ghost. Mr. Fox, his private secretary, and a press reporter, was there standing with his note-book and pencil. Mr. Vogel put several questions to me as to my duties and the details of my department: but his questions were of the most trivial kind: he appeared most anxious to know why a free passage had been given to a hair dresser who had been nominated, in the Colony, and sent for by his friends in Otago. Ought a hair dresser – or rather a common barber, which he was, to have a free passage to New Zealand? was the question that agitated the mind and exercised the mental faculties of the "First statesman" of New Zealand. (The decision of this question had been referred to him – ironically – by the Agent-General.) He paused: he put his fingers to his forehead as if he were feeling for an idea. He seemed to be at a loss what question to ask me when he had sent for me and I had come.

At last he seemed to have solved the momentous barber-

question, for he told Mr. Fox to write down from his dictation a memorandum to the A.-G. on the subject. This memo: was worded in precise terms, flowing language and excellent composition; but after all there was nothing practical in it, and it meant nothing. In most things he was very undecided, and therefore constantly changing. He again questioned me, but he seemed so absent in mind and undecided in manner, that his questions were irrelevant. He next paused and appeared deep in thought, asked more trivial questions, and then in an authoritative way said: – "Mr. Carter, we will not pursue the subject further, I will see you again when I have more time to spare." Thus ended my interview with Mr. Vogel. From the following extract of a letter from a New Zealand friend of mine, who also had an interview with him, shortly afterwards, my opinions of Mr. Vogel received corroboration.

"April 12th, 1875.

"DEAR MR. CARTER,

"I saw Mr. Vogel yesterday, and my opinion is that he has no definite or clear idea as to what his policy is – where it begins or ends or what shape it shall take – and consequently cannot enlighten others; it strikes me that his mind is confused or undecided as to the detail of operations.

"In fact he hurriedly made several conflicting statements which could not be reduced to practice, and led me to feel that I was no wiser for having seen him, and that although he may be a great genius, he is certainly not a practical man * * * I should imagine that what he approves to-day he may reverse to-morrow – at least in his present state of mind, which is evidently one of indecision * * *

I am yours truly, &c."

On the 29th of May the Agent-General saw Sir Julius Vogel at the residence of the latter, on business matters – and I may say here that during the present visit of Mr. Vogel to London, there has been an entire absence of cordiality between the two – he, Mr. V., was then, the Agent-General said, "as lively as a cricket," he had just been knighted and was invited to dine, next day, with Lord Carnarvon. Dr. Featherston could

never understand how it was Mr. Vogel's knighthood had been obtained. Up to the last week before it was conferred – Featherston understood it had been refused. The latter gentleman believes that high pressure by a city house – of course the Rothschilds – aided by the strong recommendations of the ex-Governor, Sir James Ferguson, had been put on Disraeli and Lord Carnarvon, and so the business was settled.

On the 11th of June, Mr. V. came again to the office and of course wanted lunch. He had it. It consisted of mutton, potatoes, green peas, asparagus, and bread, washed down with brandy and soda water. He ate all, and then came into my room and said, "Mr. Carter, the waiter has forgotten the cream cheese, will you send for him?" With lively alacrity I sent for the cream cheese. Quickly it was brought, soon eaten, and Sir Julius made happy – till dinner time in the evening of the same day.

On the 1st of September, 1875, I resigned my appointment, and received the following reply from Dr. Featherston.

"7, Westminster Chambers,
"Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.
"September 1st, 1875.

"Sir,

"I have received your letter of this day's date conveying to me your resignation of the office you have held on the staff of this Department, during the last four years. I accept it with sincere regret. In doing so, I feel bound to record my sense of the zeal, energy, readiness and capacity which you have constantly – throughout that period – exhibited in the service of the Colony, as well as to testify to the complete confidence which, in my own relations with you, I have always had in your discretion and good will.

"I remain, Sir,
"Faithfully yours,
"I. E. FEATHERSTON.
"Agent-General."
"C. R. Carter, Esq."

Much more of Sir Julius Vogel I have not got to say.

Let it suffice for me to state, that on the 27th of June he left Dover for the continent. In the beginning of September he returned to London. He looked a podgy person, and used a stick, but otherwise seemed well in health. He gave out he would return to New Zealand at the end of September – then it was to be in October. Dr. Featherston remarked to me that he was waiting to see "how the cat jumped in the Colony." If his friends were in he would return, if not he would remain in England.

On the evening of the 10th of September, the Doctor told me that, during that day, he had had an interview with Sir Julius, forcibly depicted to him the grave financial condition of the Colony, and showed him a confidential telegram he (the A.-G.) had ten days before forwarded to the Government of New Zealand. When Sir Julius read this telegram he was fairly taken aback, and hardly spoke for five minutes. Then the Agent-General said to him, "You cannot return to the Colony till new financial arrangements are made. I will not be left to face demands without financial means to meet them. The four millions will be exhausted by the end of March next, and as matters now stand, if the Government draw heavily on me again – which they are certain to do – before the expiration of that period, there will be no funds at my disposal to satisfy their requirements." Sir Julius Vogel then looked the picture of despair and humiliation. He wanted to know what the Agent-General thought should be done. The result was that Sir J. sent an urgent telegram to the Colony asking the Government to state its financial requirements.

In fact, Dr. Featherston said he quite pitied Sir Julius's prostrate mental condition on this occasion. The interview ended and Sir Julius soon recovered his usual equanimity, self satisfied air and financial audacity, for, next day, his private secretary told me how much he rejoiced that

he was leaving England for New Zealand, and "how glad I am," he said, "that I shall be on the salt water in a month from this time." "Is Sir Julius going then?" I enquired, and "yes" was the reply – qualified by "I think it is so settled." He also told me that he and Sir Julius and family would sail – about the 9th of October – from Liverpool to New York, and then journey on to New Zealand via San Francisco.

As if to console him, at this time, he received the following telegram from the Colony, and had it inserted in the London morning papers of the 16th of September

"The revenue exceeded that of last year by £185,000, and exceeded the treasurer's estimate by £108,000, showing a surplus for past year of £120,000. Proposals for current year contemplate taking over Provinces after four months. Bill passed second reading for abolishing all Provinces by 52 Votes to 17. The estimated expenditure, including eight months' provision for Provincial service, is £2,4O0,O00, estimated revenue, £2,476,000, estimated, surplus thus being £76,000. The revenue includes £246,000 from the land revenue for interest on Provincial loans, but does not include £702,000 from land which, by the terms of abolition, will be devoted to special purposes, such as public works, immigration, and subsidies to district road boards. The cost of defence and constabulary and interest on all loans are included in the expenditure out of revenue."

This statement, though a puffing one, certainly looks as if Provincial Governments are to be abolished. The measure, if carried out, will make an epoch in the History of New Zealand; and also effect a vital change in the Constitution and Government of the Colony. It will, I believe, also have the effect of welding the Islands of New Zealand into, – first a united country and ultimately, an INDEPENDENT STATE.

In conclusion I have but little more to say. Human existence is short but varied, and I may remark that in

youth, as a rule, we are hopeful, in middle life we are doubtful, and in old age we are desponding. Notwithstanding this I am disposed to think that there is much happiness in life, and while we live, we ought to make the best of it. The story of my life, so far, is ended. It has been written at various times, and under many difficulties. I have composed and arranged it here and there, a bit at a time, and by snatches from leisure hours and other opportunities. Occasionally, – when riding on the top of an omnibus, when seated on the deck of a steamer, or even when walking in the crowded streets of London, an appropriate idea has struck me, which I duly chronicled in my note book – much to the curiosity of fellow travellers or passers-by. Sometimes the work has been laid aside, and afterwards resumed and continued. At last, in the month of October 1875, the book – with all its faults, imperfections and want of uniformity in its arrangement – is finished, and must take its chance of being read when the writer has disappeared from the scenes which have formed the subjects of these pages.

END OF VOL. III.

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