REPORTS DENIED.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 374, 4 March 1937, Page 4

REPORTS DENIED.

Incidents of Mr. Semple’s Tour. \ Press Association—Copyright. Wellington, To-day. Some of the newspaper reports from the South Island last week about th-e Minister of Public Works, Hon. R. Semple, were described by the Minister yesterday “as a tissue of lies unworthy of mddern journalism.” In making an emphatic protest, the Minister said: “Ft is true that niy car broke down, but it is certainly not true that I was towed into Ashburton by a “rattletrap.’ When my car failed, I was given | a tow by a lorry driver, whose ve-

; hide could not be classed as junk. It j is also untrue to say that the garage I proprietor told mo I could not get my j car fixed owing to the 4'o-hour week. “I have noticed also that the Press hrs told the punlic that I deliberately ran over a wheelbarrow when driving a tractor at the opening of the Christchurch aerodrome works. From my position at the wheel of the tractor I could not see the barrow, and did not know I had run over it until after I had dismounted. I lear |t suoI sequently that the barrow, a rickety | old affair, had been placed under the | tractor as a joke by one of the men. ! The barrow was really unfit for fur-, I ther service. I have too much regard | for my responsibilities as a trustee i of public money to destroy public proI perty.”