MINISTER "OFF SIDE”

Evening Star, Issue 22450, 22 September 1936, Page 6

MINISTER "OFF SIDE”

MR HOLYOAKE ON MOTUEKA EPISODE [Pek United Press Association.'] AUCKLAND, September 21. “ One lias heard of the Motueka dispute,” said Mr K. J. Holyoake, M.P. for Motueka, in an address to-night. “ It seems that there has been a lot of misunderstanding about it. It is to me a matter of the right of free speech, which Mr Semple, among others, has always fought for in the past. I notice that the workers have been rather incensed by what has occurred, and I agree with the unions which have passed resolutions against Mr Semple. He has put himself off side. There were 180 men working on the aerodrome from which the resolutions came. That they are a good type of men is shown by the fact that they were earning from 19s to 24s a day. Some of them are my own relatives, and they are all jolly good chaps. There was nothing obnoxious or wrong in their resolutions, which were only an expression of their opinions. The resolutions were sent to the secretary, and then—l don’t know why—to Mr Semple. Mr Semple went to the newspapers and referred to Communists right outside the matter just to find a whipping horse. If Mr Semple has done no more in his life than to help to pass such a resolution, then he would not have much to answer for, would he?”