NO USURPATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 76, 11 January 1936, Page 3

NO USURPATION

THE RIGHTS OF PARLIAMENT. MR SEMPLE EMPHATIC. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 10. Defending his statement that certain board members, instead of being given big salaries would be given a pair of running shoes, the Hon. It- Semple today said it was no unfortunate lapse. "What I said I said deliberately," Mr Semple stated. "1 meant it and mean it, and have no apology to make. The boards and committees which the last Government allowed to usurp the rights and privileges of Parliament must understand that they will no longer be permitted to continue. I carried on a vigirous campaign throughout New Zealand, addressing thousands of people, and I fought my own personal campaign with this issue prominently in the foreground. I found people practically unanimous on the subject, it being the general opinion that the rights and privileges of Parliament—in other words, of the people—must not be delegated to boards which had no .responsibility to the people. Placing this contention in the foreground of my campaign, I was given an emphatic mandate to help to carry this policy into effect. Some boards have taken unto themselves so much authority and power that they turned into nothing short of a dictatorship. That must stop. What I have said I have said in the name of those that gave me a definite mandate. I want no lessons from anyone about what I shall say. I don't believe in a chained democracy, hamstrung and hampered by reactionary boards and committees which have no responsibility to the people. It cannot be gainsaid that New Zealand gave this Government an anti-board, anti-commis-sion, anti-committee mandate, and we know what we are going to do." Mr Bemple said it was possible that the Highways Board would be retained, but it would be necessary to reconstruct it. While he had little jurisdiction the board had practically a monopoly of expenditure and allocations. Mr Semple said he was going to tell the country his message in his own language, and none was going to pick his words for him.