PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS

MINISTER ADAMANT

REPLY TO RUMOUR

Steps that he has taken to prevent the consumption of liquor in Public Works camps were outlined by the Minister of Public We rks (the Hon. R. Semple) in an interview today.

• Mr. Semple said that a statement had been broadcast that he, as Minister of Public Works, before starting the Turakina deviation had purchased the hotel at Fordell, and that he had put his daughter and her husband in the hotel as dummies, so that he (Mr. Semple) would receive the benefit of the earnings of the men. That statement had been broadcast in Wanganui and throughout the Dominion, and it had come back to him.

"The facts are," said Mr. Semple, "that I did not know there was a hotel at Fordell till I went to meet.the men employed on the job there a few weeks ago. I never in my life owned any interest in a hotel in New Zealand or in any other country I have been in, and I never will. This statement has been made at a time when I am doing my best to keep liquor out of the Public Works camps of the country, and if I had my way I would close every hotel in close proximity to Public Works.

Mr. Semple said that there was one hotel on the Westport-Reefton line -that was closed till the works were started, when a licence was again given to it. The hotel was right in the centre of the camp, and in his opinion the licence should never'have been renewed. He was going so far as to shift the main camp away from that hotel, so as to keep the men away from the temptation of liquor, though it was going to cost something to the Department. WARNING TO MEN. •Outlining what he was doing to prevent men taking liquor to camps, Mr. Semple said that the following: notice was displayed in all Public Works camps:— * Any men found indulging in the following practices are liable to summary dismissal:—(l) Drinking to ' excess in any camp' or on any work under the control of the Department; (2)' behaving in a disorderly manner on the works; (3) absenting themselves from work without leave, or, when' on the works, being in an unfit state to do a fair day's work through " the effects of intemperance; (4)' brawling in the camp... . . . Mir. Semple said that recently on the Parnassus line he spent some sixteen hours on quiet investigation' as a result .of reports that had come to him about liquor. He discovered a case containing seven dozen pint bottles on a railway station, and addressed to a man in camp. The liquor was obviously for sale in the, camp. Mr. Semple said that he instructed the stationmaster to send the liquor back to the brewery, and it arrived back in Christchurch before he (the Minister) left. Another man was distilling cider which had been sold to the men. The man had a licence to sell a restricted quantity. Mr. Semple said he was communicating with the man to' tell him that although he had no power to cancel the licence, if "the practice continued, he would ask Parliament to'cancel the licence. " : ,-"•• ;V ~.- SIGNING .OF'PLEDGE. . : ... Mr.. Semple said that',it was well known that when^ he; undertook the Orohgorongo contract he made the men sigh a pledge that;they would not take liquor into the camp—and they never did. The Minister said that he took the opportunity to make this statement to combat the foul lies that had been whispered about him to discredit him, although he was doing all that he could do to prevent the entry of liquor into Public Works camps, and had done more than any Minister had dared to do before. "I don't mind criticism; I don't mind a flight in the open, but these methods engineered against me are low and detestable, and it is only fair in the interests of the Dominion that the people should know the facts," he said.