Sir Julius Vogel (1835-1899) was a New Zealand journalist, financier, politician, and prime minister. He led the country to economic recovery after the post-gold rush depression.

Julius Vogel was born in London on Feb. 24, 1835. At the age of 17 he joined the gold rush to Australia and became editor of the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser in Victoria. In 1861 he moved on to Otago, where he helped to start the first daily newspaper in New Zealand. In 1862 he was elected to the provincial house, and the following year he won a seat in the central legislature in Auckland.

Vogel's precise political orientation was difficult to deduce, but he was associated with the conservatives, and in 1869 he became colonial treasurer in the administration headed by William Fox. It was a period of economic depression, following the boom of the gold rush, and Vogel proposed that the government should embark on a...