PROTEST BY MINISTER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 25 August 1939, Page 5

PROTEST BY MINISTER

ALLEGED EXTRAVAGANCE OFFER TO RESIGN SEAT (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day, A challenge to the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, to join fiim in placing his resignation in the hands of Mr. Speaker was the culminating point, of a strong protest by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, against allegations by the Opposition that he was a spendthrift in his public works. During the debate in the House of Representatives on the Finance Bill Mr. Semple declared: “If the Opposition can prove the assertions made in this house during the session that millions of pounds have been wasted on public works, I am prepared to resign from public life and forfeit £IOO to the crippled children’s fund, conditionally that the Leader of the Opposition, if he fails to prove the charges he and his party have made against me and my department, shall do likewise.” The trial suggested by the Minister was one conducted: by a properlyconstituted tribunal of engineers and accountants. He was prepared to prove that there had been a saving of tens of thousands of pounds under his administration, that service had been given in some cases in one-third of the time, that scores of lives had been saved on public works constructional jobs and on highways. Past Administrations “On the other hand,” added the Minister, “I am. also prepared to prove that during past administration of public Works, millions of pounds of public money were squandered, and lives Were needlessly lost.”

Mr. Semple described the process of preparing the public works estimates, pointing out that members had the opportunity of seeing them and to make representations and, that he called district engineers to Wellington to overhaul items. Any member was entitled to go to him and say where the money was being wasted, but he had not had a single representation of that sort.

“But they have asked for thousands of other votes that the public purse could not stand,’’ said the Minister.

“I malje that challenge in all sincerity. I make it right now.”

Mr. W. J. Poison (Nat.. Stratford): Pistols for two and coffee for une. (Laughter). Unfairness Alleged

Mr. Semple protested that when he had got the best service for the money voted by Parliament, it was unfair to accuse him of dipping his fingers into the public purse, to call him a spend-thrift and a squanderer. “Why,” he added, “one member descended to the depth of calling me public enemy No. 1, regarding me as something less than a murderer and a ravager of children.” Mr. W. J. Broad foot (Nat., Waitomo): Don’t spoil a good speech. Mr. Semple: My challenge is there. I will suffer the consequences. The Leader of the Opposition was temporarily absent from the House; therefore his attitude towards thq challenge could not be indicated. However the Opposition speaker who followed, Mr. A. E. Jull (Waipawa) treated it jocularly. , “I do not suppose,” he said, “there has even been a Government the members of which have been so thin skinned against criticism as the members opposite. It is an extraordinary thing how often one sees that people with the coarsest tongues have the thinnest skins. I would commend to the Minister of Public Works that he should moderate his language.”