Julius Vogel

Sir Julius Vogel 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 was the first 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.

24 February 1835

Born on the same birth day (24 February): Erna Solberg • Giovanni Pico della Mirandola • Irmgard Bartenieff • Jacques de Vaucanson • Joanie Sommers • Johan Friis • John Burgoyne • Johnny Hills • Kent Haruf • Kintarō Ōki • Kosta Koufos • Madison Hubbell • Mike Lowell • Nick Blackburn • Rudolph Ganz • Rupert Holmes • Trace Cyrus • Vladimir Bartol

Born in the same month (February 1835): Demetrios Vikelas • Mirza Ghulam Ahmad • Piet Paaltjens