TOUR BY MINISTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 132, 1 December 1938, Page 7

TOUR BY MINISTERS

WESTPORT FUNCTION

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WESTPQRT, November 30,

The Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) and the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb), who are visiting the Buller district, were guests at a gathering of citizens and members of local bodies at a smoke concert in Westport tonight. The Mayor (Mr. J. Kilkenny), who presided, said that Mr. Webb had started Westport on the road to progress and had turned a downtrodden community into a prosperous one with a great future. Paying a tribute to Mr. Semple, the Mayor said he was the greatest Minister of Public Works the Dominion had had. Mr. Webb commented at some length on land development schemes in the Buller district, which were proving successful, also the pakihi land experiments which, he said, had produced great results. The prosperous state of the coal-mining industry, not only in the Buller but also in other districts, was also commented on by the Minister.

Mr. Semple spoke of the mechanisation system for developing farm lands and the big experiment to be made in February in the Buller district. He predicted successful results and great benefits for farmers who had large areas of land to clear. The Minister paid tribute to public works, engineers in New Zealand as the best in the world.

The, Ministers inspected the West-port-Inangahua railway and other works, also the pakihi land developmental areas, with which thay were greatly impressed.