WILL RESIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 200, 25 August 1939, Page 10

WILL RESIGN.

MR. SEMPLE OFFENDED

OPPOSITION ALLEGATIONS. WASTAGE ON PUBLIC WORKS. (By Telegraph.— Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, thi* day. A challenge to the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Hamilton, to join him in placing bis resignation in the bands of Mr. Speaker was the apex of a vigorous protest made by the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Seinple, in the House of Representatives last night against ■allegation* by the Opposition that he was a spendthrift in his public works policy. "If the Opposition can prove the assertions made in this House during the session that millions of pounds have been wasted 011 public works, I am prepared to resign from public life," declared Mr. Semple. '"1 will do that and forfeit £100 to the crippled children's fund on condition that tire Leader of the Opposition, if he fails to prove the charges he and his party have made against me and my Department will do likewise."

After suggesting that an examination should be carried out by a tribunal of engineers and accountants, Mr. Semple described the process of preparing public works estimates. He pointed out that all members had the opportunity of seeing the estimates and said he had called the district engineers to Wellington to overhaul items. Any member had the right to go to the Minister point any wastage, but he had not had a single representation of that sort. 011 the other hand, they had asked for thousands of other votes that the public purse could not stand.

'T make my challenge in all sincerity and 1 make it right now," declared the Minister.

Mr. W. .T. Poison (National. Stratford) : Pistols for two and coffee for one. (Laughter.)

Mr. Semple protested that it was unfair to accuse him of dipping his fingers into the public purse and to call him a squanderer after he had obtained the best possible service for the money voted by Parliament.

One member of this House has gone so far as to call, me the Public Encniv 1 «" went on Mr. Semple. "That nuts me as something less than a murderer and ravishcr of children."

Mr. F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga): Don't spoil a good speech. Mr. Semple: My challenge is there and I will suffer the consequences. Because the Leader of the Opposition was absent from the House there was no indication of his attitude toward the challenge, but Mr. A. E. Jull (National, Waipawa), who was the next speaker, treated it jocularly. "It i s „n extraordinary thing," he said, "how often one sees that people with the coarsest tongues have the thinnest skins. 4s one booze artist to another I would commend the Minister of Public Works to he a little more moderate in his language.