BOARD DENOUNCED

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 124, 27 May 1936, Page 10

BOARD DENOUNCED

MR SEMPLE'S TAUNTS. "OPPOSITION STEAM ROLLER." "MR. SPEAKER" INTERVENES. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The abolition of the Transport Coordination Board was referred to by til'.' Minister of Transport, Mr. Semple, in his reply to the third reading debate on the 'Transport Licensing Amendment Bill in the House to-night. Mr. Semple denounced the board in strong terms, and said that the Minister elected by the people was in future to have the powers which were vested in the board. Mr. Semple said the question had been asked, "Why is the Government getting rid of the board?" Since he, Mr. Semple, had been Minister he had travelled extensively over New Zealand to ascertain how, when and where men could be placed back in work. He had been from North Cape to Bluff, and hundreds of deputations had interviewed him and made the request that the Coordination Board should be abolished. He hud not found one individual to defend the board. The people of New Zealand were . fair-minded and there must be something radically wrong with an organisation when no one could say a good word for it. Even the Conservative Press had "blasted the board in cutting language." The board had been condemned "lock, stock and barrel." There was laughter from both sides of the House at the use of this phrase, which Mr. Coates had used when leading the Opposition attack on the bill in the second reading debate. Mr. Semple said that unsolicited he had been requested from one end of the country to the other to "get rid of this infernal machine." "Knock-out Blow." Referring to the criticism of Sir Alfred Ransom (National, Pahiatua), the Minister said ho was the steam roller of the Opposition outfit usually put up to

deliver a knock-out blow. (Laughter.) He had referred to th 6 bill as being a traversty of British justice and the beginning of a new form of despotism. The member, for Pahiattia was evidently absent-minded, because the original Act framed by tire last Government stated that the Co-ordination Board, in determining any appeal, was not bound to hear any person or to take any evidence or to receive any representations from any person. That was in a bill drafted by" a Ministerial colleague of Sir Alfred Ransom and 1 which the member for Pahiatua supported. The only difference to-day was that the power in the original Act had been transferred from the Co-ordination Board to the Minister of Transport. The difference was that the board was not 'getatable" by the people, nor was It responsible to the people in any way. Under the bill before the House responsibility was placed on the shoulders of the Minister, who was th* representative of the people. Was there anything wrong with that? The member for Pahiatua had lashed himself into convulsions about this power. The board certainly had despotic powers, and all the Government had done was to vest the power in the people's representatives. Minister Called to Order. Criticising the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Forbes), Mr. Semple said that the member for Huriinul had accused him (Mr. Semple) of acting on impulse. He ha.d .inferred that the Minister of Transport had no idea of the common logic of the law of evidence or of justice, and,., he asked whether the Leader of the Opposition was a fit judjrc to measure any person's mentality. He had become Prime Minister by accident. Tn making further uncomplimentary references to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Semple was called to order by Mr. Speaker, and withdrew the remark lie had made. Mr. Semple said the original Act had many admirable provisions, but the Minister of Transport of the last Government had met his Waterloo when he appointed the Co-ordination Board. "It sabotaged the bill and sabotaged the Minister as well," he added. There would not have been the present tangle if the principle of the original Act had been adhered to, said the Minister, but in what had happened the measure had been crucified anl in the process the Minister had also been crucified.