Relatively few people have ever heard of Sir Julius Vogel, and this is unfortunate, because he was a remarkable man.
Having studied metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines in London (his birthplace), he moved to Australia during the Victoria gold rush and became…logically…a journalist and newspaper editor.
After moving across the Tasman to New Zealand in October 1861, he co-founded the Otago Daily Times – now New Zealand’s oldest surviving daily newspaper – the following month, and plunged into politics the following year, becoming an MP the year after that. Over the next quarter of a century he would represent five different electorates in the New Zealand Parliament, ranging from “Dunedin and Suburbs North” in the south to “Auckland East” in the north.
Another of his electorates was Goldfields – a special interest electorate which covered the same geographical area as other electorates but was only open to voters with a valid miner’s license. No electoral roll was kept – just show your license and vote.
He clearly liked variety, as he was also – at various times – head of the Otago Provincial Government, Postmaster-General, Colonial Treasurer (let’s borrow ten million pounds for national infrastructure!), Commissioner of Customs, and Telegraph Commissioner. His love of variety may have carried him a bit far in 1866, however, when he ran for the electorate of Waikouaiti two days after winning the electorate of Goldfields. He did lose the Waikouaiti election, which simplified matters.
Sir Julius goes down in history as the first Member of the New Zealand Parliament to be “named” – a parliamentary euphemism for being turfed out of the debating chamber for breaking the rules. (He refused to withdraw his remark that a fellow MP had a “want of manners”.)
He also made history by becoming Premier (twice: ’73-’75 and again for part of ’76) as a practicing Jew – quite something, as it was only 15 years since Jews had even been allowed to take the seats to which they had been elected in the British parliament.
During Sir Julius’s time as an MP he introduced the first women’s suffrage bill (1887). It was unsuccessful, though he did live to see women get the vote in NZ in 1893 (by which time he had retired to London and was in poor health).
Not content to rest on his parliamentary, journalistic, and sundry other laurels, he published in 1889 a novel which is generally recognized as New Zealand’s first science fiction work. Anno Domini 2000, or, Woman’s Destiny looks forward to that far-off (at time of writing) year of 2000, when not only would women have the vote, but many of the high positions in government etc would be held by women. This did in fact happen, though it wasn’t until 2005 that the monarch, governor-general, prime minister, speaker of the parliament, and chief justice were all women. (So close.)
Sir Julius’s prophetic powers came a cropper when it came to the USA, however, as the novel concerns – in part – a war between the United States of America and the Federated British Empire, caused by the Emperor’s refusal to marry the daughter of America’s female President. (Of Sir Julius’s accuracy in predicting royal and dynastic tendencies in the presidency, I say nothing.)
The bad guy of the piece is Lord Reginald Parramatta, a “villainous Australian republican” whose designs on the heroine are thwarted not by the hero but by the heroine herself. She’s Undersecretary for Home Affairs (something along the lines of an associate minister of internal affairs, as far as I can tell) who is perfectly capable of dealing with nefarious republicans herself.
Sir Julius Vogel is remembered – to the extent that people know the connection – in the names of two Vogeltowns, and a whole assortment of Vogel Streets. (Vogel House was built by – or rather, for – his grandson, also of the name of Vogel, so is only indirectly named after Sir Julius. After some time as a government residence, it is once more owned and occupied by the Vogel family.)
Sir Julius is more specifically commemorated in the name of the New Zealand awards for science fiction, fantasy, and horror – the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Which are open for nominations until the end of February! So if you have read or seen or watched a great piece of SF/F/H produced by someone from or in New Zealand – and it was produced in the year 2024 – then feel free to nominate the work. You don’t even have to be Kiwi yourself. All the info you need – and the nomination form – is on the SFFANZ website.
Anno Domini 2000 is not eligible (not being a 2024 production) but it’s available for free on the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection website. It’s definitely going on my reading list – I’m always happy to see a villainous Australian thwarted.
Amiant Soul – which is eligible this year – is available at a price of your choosing on its eponymous page on this website.
After all, having read about how much Sir Julius Vogel managed to do before retirement age (the poor chap only lived to be 64) you probably need to put your feet up with a book for a bit.
Deborah, I’m planning to nominate your book, but I’m a little unsure about which categories it fits into, and whether I can nominate the same book for more than one category. E.g. fantasy, new/emerging talent, production, etc. Can you enlighten – my reading of fine print is being tested!!
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for being willing to nominate!
Amiant Soul can be nominated for Best Novel (being over 40,000 words), and I’m pretty sure that’s the only category it or I are eligible for.
(New/emerging talent is for people in the first four years of their career, and as Restoration Day was published in 2018 I’m no longer eligible.)
OK, thanks for the clarification. I wondered about the publication, as it’s high quality too. Makes reading more pleasurable!
I looked it up in the small print, which says, “Professional production/publication is for work in any medium other than those eligible for other categories.”