NO SNUB INTENDED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 28, 17 February 1937, Page 6

NO SNUB INTENDED

-PreM Asaodstiea.)

"Minister Behavine Like S Petulant Child MR HARGEST'S REPLY

(B» Teleursph-

INVERCARGILL, Feb. 1*. "The Hon. E. Semple has evidently tired of acting as a kind of mountebank to the Ministry and now seeks further notoriety by c&stigating the Leader of the Opposition and cnyself for imagined snubs," said Mr. Hargest in a statement to-night, replying to the Hon. E. Semple's criticism of his absence from his electorate during the Minister 's visit. . "It shouid be unnecessary for ma te say that no snub was intended," said Mr. Hargest. "The date of the qua*» terly meeting of the executive of the National Party was: arranged as far back as November, and when I found jfchat the meeting clashed with Mr. Semple's visit I wrote to him express* rug my regret that I would not be able to accompany him, to Stewart Island. I set out the f equirements of the depn» tations there and the names of the spokesmen and my views on each case* 'This was to give him an opportunity to consult his departmental officers and so enable him to give an intelligent reply. Any person with the first in« stints of manliness would have accegt* ed my explanation and not behaved like a petulant child. "When it became impossible to at* tend at Invercargill I telegraphed Mr, W. M. C. Denman, M.P., asking hina to take my three deputations, and also telegraphed the leaders of those deputations. I could not do more. Tho Minister 's references to the duties of members leave me cold. I do not ao cept reproof from a man whose con* ception of duty is to race up and dows the Dominion hurling vituperation at his political opponents in a way ua* dreamed of by his predecessors of any party* J 4 4i may inform him that a ffiCmber'a duties do not begin and end with ro* ceiving Ministers of the Crown, and that wifile in Wellington, coincidental* ly with taking a share in a very im» porant conference, I was able to pere form sbme service to a considerablQ number of my constituents* "So long as Mr. Semple is a Minia* ter and I am a member of Parliament" I will be glad to meet him in my eleo* torate with all the courtesy I command provided there is nothing more important to occupy my attention, but nor amount of bombast or bathos on hia part will persuade me to snbmit to hia dictatiom"