MINISTER & MEMBER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 81, 7 April 1910, Page 3

MINISTER & MEMBER.

LIVELY DEPUTATION PROCEED IN'US MR MANDER THREATENED WITH EJECTION. (»T IttEOHArn— FBCSI ABIOCUTIOK.J AUCKLAND, 6th April. A deputation from the Auckland Railways League waited on the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. R. M'Kenzie) this afternoon, for the purpose of urging that the scope of the Royal Communion to bo rcl op to enquire into the proposed deviation north of M'Carrolt's Gap on the North Auckland railway route should be extended so at to include an investigation into the proposed deviation south of M'Carroll'A Gap. The proceedings were very lively. Mr. M'Kenzie declined to accede, to the request, aaring that it had been made too late. Mr. Mander, M.P., challenged Mr. M'Ke-nzie to prove that tho western route was the shortest, cheapest, and best, and said ho would put up £1000 if the challengo were accepted. A passage-at-arma took place between Mr. Mander and the Minister, the lattei threatening to have tho member for Marfcden ejected from the ioom. "THE PUBLIC ARE NOT SATISFIBD." "ANGRY AND~PERSONAL ATTACK" RESENTED. [BX TELEOftAPK — SPECIAL TO THE POST-l AUCKLAND, This Day. During the proceedings at the deputation, Mr. Mander asserted that at the enquiry before tho Parliamentary Committee the Public Works engineers were placed in an awkward position in haying to give evidence against the Minister of Public Work*. The Minister : Not at all. Mr. Mander adhered to his statement, and added that a local witness was prevented by the Minister from going to Wellington. The Minister said he could not allow such a statement to go unchallenged. He had nothing whatever to do with tho witneores callca by tho committee, and had no power to prevent the committee from calling whom it liked. Mr. Mander, speaking heatedly, wantod to know how a Minister who only spent a day and a half in going over a route couln come to n just decision. The Minister: I cannot allow this. Mr. Mander: I am going to talk plainly. The Minister : Well, I am not going to listen to you moking charges without any foundation. Yon havo been long enough in Parliament to know that any committee can call ns man}* i>itnrwcs as it likes. Mr. Mander: I want to Know how you, in going over tho route in orjr and a-half days, could have got Mi.H.'ient data? The public are not satisfied; you are v public scrvnnt, nnd a." t>uch f hould satisfy the public. The Minister: It U not a personal question with mo at all, and if you can't deal with the subject on its merits, then there is no loom here for you. Mr. Mander (heatedly) : We want satisfaction. I challenge you to prove your case. I will hand over £1000 to any charity in Auckland if you can : prove that tho western route i« the' shortest, cheapest, and best. It is not fair for one man to set up his will agaimt that of the people, reports of engineers, and the authorisation of Parliament. Tho Minister iutid they would hardly expect him to reply to n personal and angry attack made on him by Mr. Mander. One statement of Mr. Mander's he would reply to, however, and that was with reference to the iwtue of a proclamation. For every railway made in New Zealand a proclamation had to be issued by tho Government, and a map deposited, and no deviation could !>«• made from that afterwards for more than ten chains without such deviation being specially authorised. When *he Government decided in favour of « he western route south of M'Carroll'* Gap, they got the be*t legal advice ou tho subject, so that they knew- exactly what they were, doing. Mr. Mander might be a bush lawyer, but the Government, had the best legal advice. Mr. Peacock : The point i» that it is not authorised. The Minister: But it in authorised. Mr. Peacock: By Parliament? The Minister: "We are advised that 't is authorised." The Minister wenton to say that be knew every yard of the route, and declared that the Government was not going against public opinion when it decided to go on with the western route. After going thoroughly into the matter, he satisfied himself that tho western route would open up more land and would be> the shortest and cheapest route. "Personally, I tell yon," he said, "that the route is fixed, and that as far as the Government is concerned we don't see any necessity to extern! tho scope of a Royal Commission to enquire into the matter. If you had asked for this eight or nine months ago we perhaps could have had the matter referred to a Commission, but I think if this had eventuated you would have got tho same result as you have got now." MINISTERS KNOW THER .WORK i BEST. TAKE NO NOTICE OF CRITICISM. AUCKLAND. This Day. A remarkable statement was made by the Hon. R. M'Kenzie (Minister for Public Works) at tho conclusion at midnight of tie banquet in hi* honour at. Whangarei. After referring to the 'fact that the Government intended to push on tho Scoria Flat-Kaikohe line as quickly as possible, and that as soon as the Kawakawa line was completed the 300 or po men engaged on it would be put on to the other section, he stated that the North Island Main Trunk Railway was being pushed on quicker by the South Island than by Queen-htreet. They were a meddlesome crowd there, he said, and when they met him in regard to the deviation quotation he would snow them they didn't know their business. There was something deeper than appeared on. the surface in the attitude they were taking up, and the people in the North did not want their interference. The railway was proceeding northwnid all the time, and he did not Intend to ba influenced iv the matter by certain Auckland gentlemen. The Ministers of the Crown knew their work best, ■und did not take any notice* of Uie «e--veie criticum they were constantly being subjected to by people who did not enow what they were talking about.