Julius Vogel

The Right Honourable Sir Julius Vogel KCMG
8th Premier of New Zealand
In office 8 April 1873 – 6 July 1875 15 February 1876 – 1 September 1876
Monarch	Victoria
Governor	James Fergusson George Phipps
Preceded by	William Fox (1873) Daniel Pollen (1876)
Succeeded by	Daniel Pollen (1875) Harry Atkinson (1876)
Constituency	Dunedin Suburbs
Personal details
Born	(1835-02-24)24 February 1835 London, England
Died	12 March 1899(1899-03-12) (aged 64) Molesey, England
Political party	None
Spouse(s)	Mary Clayton
Children	Four[1]
Religion	Judaism

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

Vogel's politics were like his nature, imaginative – and occasionally brilliant – but reckless and speculative. He was an excellent policymaker but he needed a strong leader to restrain him....Yet Vogel had vision. He saw New Zealand as a potential 'Britain of the South Seas', strong both in agriculture and in industry, and inhabited by a large and flourishing population.^[2]

Early life

Born in London, Vogel received his early education at University College School in Hampstead, London. He later studied chemistry and metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines (later part of Imperial College London). He emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1852, being editor of several newspapers on the goldfields, including the Inglewood Advertiser and the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser.^[3] After an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Victorian Parliament in the Avoca district in August 1861 (he lost to James Macpherson Grant and Benjamin George Davies),^[3][4] he moved to Otago in October 1861, where he became a journalist for the Otago Witness. In November 1861, he founded the Otago Daily Times and became its first editor.^[1]

Political career

Vogel first became involved in politics in 1862, winning election to the provincial council of Otago.^[3] Four years later became the head of the provincial government, a post which he held until 1869.^[3]

Member of Parliament

In 1863 he was elected a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and on retiring from the provincial government in 1869 he joined the William Fox ministry as colonial treasurer,^[3] afterward becoming successively postmaster-general, commissioner of customs, and telegraph commissioner. The Fox ministry having been forced to resign, Vogel carried a vote of no confidence in their successors, and in October 1872, returned to power as leader in the Lower House, colonial treasurer and postmaster-general. He represented several electorates throughout the colony: Dunedin and Suburbs North 1863–1866, Goldfields in Otago 1866–1870, Auckland East 1871–1875, Wanganui 1876 (resigned) and Christchurch North 1884–1889 (resigned).

Vogel successfully contested the 1884 election in Christchurch North against John Crewes.^[5]

Premier of New Zealand

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

Vogel is best remembered for his "Great Public Works" scheme of the 1870s. Before 1870, New Zealand was a country largely dominated by provincial interests and pork-barrel politics. After Vogel, as colonial treasurer, proposed borrowing the massive sum of 10 million pounds, New Zealand developed significant infrastructure of roads, railways and communication, all administered by central government. This ultimately led to the end of provincial government in 1876.

Vogel is also noteworthy as one of the few practising Jewish prime ministers outside Israel. Since Vogel, two other New Zealanders of Jewish descent have held the premiership: Francis Bell, an Anglican who briefly became prime minister in May 1925; and John Key, New Zealand's current prime minister, who took office in 2008 and who is not religious despite attending synagogue as a child on occasion.^[6] Benjamin Disraeli, of Jewish descent but Anglican, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom contemporaneously to Vogel's premiership. Mikhail Fradkov, also Jewish, was Prime Minister of Russia.

Life after politics

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

In honour of this book, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for New Zealand speculative fiction take their name from him.^[7]

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

Namesakes

Several things bear his name today:

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

See also

• New Zealand literature

Notes

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "^{article name needed}". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. 

Further reading

• Burdon, Randal M. Life and Times of Sir Julius Vogel (Christchurch, 1948)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julius Vogel.

• Prime Minister's Office biography (archived)
• Biographic entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia
• History of Jews in New Zealand – Wellington Jewish Community Website
• Biography in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
• Sir Julius Vogel: Anno Domini 2000 Or A Woman's Destiny: New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. Full text freely available online
•  "Vogel, Sir Julius". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 
•  "Vogel, Julius". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.