PLAYING, THE GAME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1938, Page 7

PLAYING, THE GAME

MR SEMPLE’S WARNING TO WORKERS GOVERNMENT NOT TO BE BLUFFED REFUSAL OF SERVICE DENOUNCED (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, November 2. “I tell those individuals and organisations who think they are going to bluff and-stampede the Government by putting a pistol at our heads, and striking without any reasonable provocation, that they are not going to do it,” said the Minister of Public Works, the Hon R. Semple, in an address to railway construction workers at Oaro. “We are not going to govern this country to please any group,” he added. “We are going to satisfy the great bulk of the people who put us there, and we are not going to be bulldozed, hamstrung, side-stepped, or jostled by anybody, or any group of individuals.” Mr Semple said That his warning, which was directed at organisations, trade unionists, and working men generally, was a clarion call to “those who may think they can play the fool.” “If we are to demonstrate to the rest of the world that people in little New Zealand are entitled to, and will receive their legitimate share of the wealth created by their skill, hands, brains and sweat, we have to keep our feet on the earth,” said Mr Semple. “We have not to be run off the road we have commenced to travel from imaginary influences. We have not to be mentally intoxicated as a result of this victory; but we have to keep our eyes always toward the goal, our backs to the wall, and march step by step, doing things cautiously, wisely, and well, to make this Dominion the beacon light of civilisation. That must be done, and it can be done. “The only people who can defeat us, he said, “are ourselves, the Labour movement. The Tories cannot defeat us any more. They are gone. Toryism will be as dead in New Zealand as a moa after the next three years.” The Government drew its strength and energy from the great mass of the people, and so long as working men did nothing stupid it would reach it goal. The Government had to play the game from the people’s point of view, and the people had likewise to play the game with the Government, and see that they did not in any way embarrass it, or ask it do things which were unreasonable and unjust. “We cannot afford to take risks in this country,” said Mr Semple. "We have to be cautious in everything we do. You cannot transform society from one stage to another in six hours, or something will break. You can do things only according to the will and wish of the great majority of the people. We are the custodians of the country’s purse, and we have to watch diligently every expenditure of public money, because, after all, the nation’s income has its limits. I want you to understand that. The nation’s income was drawn from the capacity to produce its needs, plus its sales from the world’s markets. A responsibility rested on the shoulders of every man and woman physically fit to toil to contribute his and her full quota to that wealth. The man or woman who would not play the game or refused to give service was looking for something for nothing. They became parasitical, and of no value to the progress and development of the country. The Government would do the job as it should be done, and bring a measure of security.