MR. FIELD AT PORIRUA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 105, 30 October 1925, Page 7

MR. FIELD AT PORIRUA

Speaking at Porirua on Wednesday evening, Mr. Field said it had been reported to him that Mr. Semple at all his meetings was making a most original and extraordinary bid for political support in connection with the Orongorongo tunnel. Mr. Field said he would not have mentioned the matter if his opponent were not using the matter very strongly for the purpose of securing votes. He was ' posing as the hero of the tunnel, and the inventor of successful co-operative labour. Mr. Field said he had heard something of this tunnel before, but in view of his opponent's action he had been making some inquiries concerning it from the result of which he was satisfied that an investigation into the circumstances under which this contract"-was let without competition to Mr. Semple, and in connection with the tunnel generally, would be of much interest to the ratepayers of the city of Wellington who paid the piper. Mr. Field said he did not blame Mr. Semple for obtaining the best price he could for the work. It was understood that Mr. Semple had asked £7 10s per foot, and eventually accepted £6 14s 6d. He was wise in getting together a band of experienced men to do the work, which was superintended by one of the City Council's engineers. The co-operative labour system, said Mr. Field, had been in operation in this country for a number of years, and at the very time the Orongorongo tunnel was in progress similar work was being carried out successfully by co-operative labour in other parts of the Dominion. The total price paid for labour only, Mr. Field said, was £70,850. The dimensions of the tunnel were 7ft by 7ft, and the work occupied just over three years. The result must have been most satisfactory to Mr. Semple and his party, but he (Mi 1. Field) was at a loss to understand how it constituted a claim for votes in the Otaki electorate. He said ho was getting a report of the cost of the Mangaroa tunnel, which he understood was constructed for far less money and the contractor in that case supplied the whole of his explosives drilling machinery, tools, etc., whereas these, he was informed, were supplied to Mr. Semple by the City Council.