Vogel Street

Vogel Street is a tribute to the late Sir Julius Vogel, the eighth Premier of New Zealand. He is best known for his part in the infrastructure development of the 1870s. Not one to shy away from making bold moves, Vogel dominated our political landscape.

Vogel was born in London in 1835. He immigrated to Australia in 1852 following the gold rush. Although he had studied chemistry at university, Vogel became a journalist in Australia. When gold was discovered in Otago in the early 1860s, Vogel crossed the ditch to New Zealand, where he founded the Otago Daily Times.

Vogel quickly became involved in politics. In 1862, he was elected to the Provincial Council of Otago. By 1866, he was the head of the Provincial Government. In 1869, Vogel became the Colonial Treasurer (now known as the Minister of Finance).

In this post, he borrowed massive amounts of money to build infrastructure. Over the next ten years, Vogel borrowed nearly $40 million from London investors; this amount is comparable to $40 billion today. While this move was controversial, he was respected for “lighting a fire” under New Zealand’s economy.

Vogel focused these funds on infrastructure development, particularly railroads; a major expansion was the Christchurch to Invercargill railway. Furthermore, roads were developed extensively in the North Island.

Vogel was Premier of New Zealand from 1873 to 1875, and again in 1876. He remained in politics for another two decades, representing various electorates until he returned to England in 1887.

Upon his retirement, he wrote the novel Anno Domini, a visionary story about life in the year 2000 where women have achieved equality with men and participate fully in all aspects of life. It is now considered a “vehicle for his ideas.”

Sir Julius Vogel died on 12 March 1899. Although his death was more than a century ago, he is well remembered today as our controversial, but ultimately visionary leader.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.