REMARKS RESENTED

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 28, 2 August 1927, Page 11

REMARKS RESENTED

PLAIN SPEAKING

BY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

Some very plain speaking was indulged in by those members of Parliament who are also members of the Lyttelton Harbour Board when replying at a meeting of the board in Christchurch yesterday to allegations that they had been paying less attention than was thoir duty to the board's affairs. Some of them were not present at the afternoon session of the last meeting of the board, the first afternoon session held for many years, and other member* commented caustically on their absence. Yesterday the members charged characterised the remarks as a slander and an insult, and as being unfair, unmanly, and untrue.

Mr. H. Holland, M.P., said that Mr. W. T. Lester had been reported as making very grave charges against them, and he thought the members of Parliament should have an opportunity of explaining themselves. He had been at the meeting for four hours, and had been unable to get back at 2 p.m. because he had to attend another meeting. To say that the members of Parliament were trifling with the board was a slander, and, coupled with the statement that they were running after £500 a year, it showed that Mr. Lester did not know what he was talking about. Mr. Lester was the Government nominee on the boai-a, and shouia bo the last person to throw stones at an elected member.

Messrs.'H. T. Armstrong and E. J. Howard, M.P.'s, concurred with the remarks made by Mr. Holland, adding that the last meeting had been the first occasion for ,a considerable time that the^board had Bat in the afternoon. They had been quite prepared to sit on until 2 p.m. in order to get the business through. Both speakers aaid that it was an insult and a most unfair thin<* to speak about the salary of anyone during his absence.

In reply, Mr. Lester contended that he had said that members of Parliament were on so many boards that they could not do justice to the lot. That was the strength 'of the whole argument he had put forward, and he was very sorry if he had hurt the feelings of the members.

Mr. W. K. M'Alpine summarised the remarks made at the previous meeting, and said that he failed to see that he had said anything wrong. He had never in his life said anything insulting to any member at a public meeting. The incident closed and it was decided to go on with the next business.