BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 126, 30 May 1944, Page 4

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

When the Minister of Works disclosed that serious defects had developed in the Fordell and Turakina tunnels on the Marton-Wanganui deviation, we said that the position was so alarming that the public would not rest content until the fullest investigation had been jmade into all its aspects. By fullest investigation we meant an inquiry that would be concerned not only with the responsibility of the engineers and the workmen engaged on the jobs but would also take into consideration [political direction and responsibility. | Mr. Semple's disclosures were made to Parliament on March 29 last. A fortnight ago the Minister announced that the Public Service Commissioner, in association with a civil engineer and a practical tunneller, was to conduct an inquiry into the administrative side of the faults found in the tunnels, and, in reply' to questions raised by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland), he later revealed that the inquiry would be held behind closed doors. This is unsatisfactory from two points of view. It is unsatisfactory to the engineers and workmen whose actions are being investigated, as, apart from the statement regarding the findings of the inquiry which Mr. Semple has undertaken to make, the public, whose interest and concern in the matter are unquestioned, will have no opportunity of following the evidence and forming any judgment as to the measure of responsibility belonging to any particular person or persons. The public also will have no opportunity of judging to what extent the question of political direction and control enters into the matter. In the light of the serious view which Mr. Semple properly took of the defects in the two tunnels, a view that was shared fully by the public, the proper course for the Government to take would have been to have provided facilities for the widest inquiry, not behind closed doors, but in public. _