FEATHERSTON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 July 1938, Page 7

FEATHERSTON

SCOUT JAMBOREE. (“Times-Age” Special.) Group Scout Master J. Halpin, Patrol Leader G. Fellingham, Troop Leader H. Houston (Rosneath) and Troop Leader J. Pendergrast (Featherston) have been accepted to represent Featherston at the Sydney Jamboree in January, 1939. They will sail from Wellington on December 27. MR SEMPLE’S. ADDRESS. In his address at Featherston on Monday evenihg the Hon R. Semple said that the young men of New Zealand, in his opinion, were the most intelligent in the world. He was of course referring to the drivers of the Deisel engines on the public works. “Give these lads a chance, which they will get while I’m in charge, and they will do the job,” he said. In referring to an unfinished railway up north, Mr Semple said that the interest already paid on the loan would have easily paid for the completion of the line, about 2J miles. This, he said, was one of the many wasteful things done by the previous Government during the depression. “I shall do everything in my power,” said Mr Semple, “to provide roads and lighting for all the backblock settlers in the country. They are just as much entitled to the modern conveniences of life as the people in the town and probably more so. The heritage of New Zealand is slipping from 1 us, per medium of the rivers, when hundreds of acres are being carried down into the Pacific. This is a work we have to tackle. The estimated cost is about £6,000,000. The work will be done by modern machines. We are the second largest motorised country in the world, being second only to America. If we could obtain cars and petrol at the same price as our 'Yankee cousins, we would lick them easily. During the last year 30,000 new motor cars have been bought in New Zealand, which makes one think that there are not really so many bankrupts as some of our ‘friends’ would have us believe.”

Concluding his speech, Mr Semple said: “Thank God we belong to a British country, the .first country in the world. Its people in the past have fought for that freedom which we enjoy today and hope to continue, to enjoy. I crawl to no one, and I ask no one to vote for me at the coming election. You will no doubt use your own judgment, which you have a perfect right to do.”