WONDERFUL BOMBSHELL

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 12

WONDERFUL BOMBSHELL

PRIME MINISTER MAKES REPLY DAIRY CONTROL FAILURE. GOVERNMENT NOT RESPONSIBLE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HELENSVILLE, this day. "That wonderful bombshell has fizzled. There has been no connivance. The talk that the Government was responsible for smashing dairy control is hot air," said tho Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, last evening, in replying to an allegation by the Leader of the Labour party (Mr. Holland) at Wellington last Thursday that the abandonment of dairy control was connected with an article published by Mr. William Goodfellow in a trade publication, and with the Government's loan to the Wireless Broadcasting Company. Mr. Coates said that Mr. R. McKeen, Labour candidate for Wellington South, had hinted about dropping a bombshell and he hoped the explosion would be powerful enough to wreck the Government. When he (Mr. Coates) had read that statement he sent a telegram to Mr. Goodfellow asking whether he wished to make any statement, and to Mr. G. McNamara, secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, requesting information in regard to the loan. The reply of Mr. Goodfellow was that Mr. Holland's reference that the financial assistance was in any way connected with dairy control was without the slightest foundation, and was nothing but grossly insulting political propaganda. The statement in the trade publication referred to, blaming the Labour party for the "board's failure to establish the council system of election, was strictly correct. The Reform party were in no way responsible for the failure of absolute control.

Mr. McNarama's reply stated that the first application for a loan from the broadcasting Company was dated October 5, 1926. An agreement was completed on December 16, 1926, but the money was not paid over until July 20. 1927, the company not having ordered material from England until the loan was assured. When the application was made the Post and Telegraph Department 'held in trust for the Broadcasting Company £5943. When the loan was made the amount held was £21,234, and at the present time it was £24,244.

Mr. Coates said he found serious difficulites hampered the members of the Dairy Control Board in England. He had accordingly sent a cable to the board in New Zealand setting out the position as it appeared to him, and that, he considered, it was his duty to do.