WORTH DEFENDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 154, 3 July 1939, Page 9

WORTH DEFENDING.

THE PRESENT SYSTEM.

"SNIVELLERS" ATTACKED. HON. R. SEMPLE IN FORM. (By Telesrraph.— Press Association.) WATROA, Sunday. Snivellers and tyrannical dictatorships again came under the lash of the Hw. R. Semple, Minister of Public Works, at the opening of the NapierWairoa railway yesterday. Mr. Seniplo spoke as an ordinary mortal who. if he hud done anything worth while, it was because it fitted in with hie life's training.

He himself had "boxed the compass," and "been around the mulberry bush" Referring to the vicissitudes of'his own life, Mr. Semple said: "I -was born in a hurry: I've lived in a hurry, and I hope to die in a hurry. "We to-day pay tribute to the old pioneere of New Zealand. They carried the. torch, forded the stream, and slept at the foot of the rata rree. Thev weren't quitters or snivellers. "Snivellers! Those people who snivelled when they were born and will snivel when they are put into their coffins." Defence Measures. The Minister deplored the l.uk of confidence shown in thenii-i'lves by Now '/.fa landers. "We've jrot engineers and workers in this country who can do the job as well as anybody else." he s:i i<l.

"'but just because a man from abroad hue a few letters in front of his name and after his name New Zeulanders say, 'He's a corker.' "

Mr. Semple emphasised tlla need for adequate defence measures to defend New Zealand and at a function held later he enlarged upon this subject.

"Once upon a time New Zealand was outside the danger zone," he said, "but the world has become a smaller place and we are right in the danger zone. We are living in a changing, jealous and treacherous world, but we must fight hard to guard our rights. We have one solemn obligation: To preserve, protect and perpetuate our present form of government.

"However we may differ on economics and so on, we.cannot afford to differ on the question of our rights an British subjects. We have seen nations ruled by the firing squad and the lash of tyranny, but in spite of it all I say our present eystem ie ten thousand times better than any other system I know. Pull Support Urged. "When the people are well fed, well clothed and well housed, then we have something worth fighting for." Mr. Semple declared New Zealand could be made the beacon light of the world. In handing over the railway to the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, as Minister of Railways, Mr. Semple urged residents in the district to give it their full eup-por-t. If they did not they were only letting themselves down.