MORE DIRECT SPEECH

Evening Star, Issue 22233, 10 January 1936, Page 6

MORE DIRECT SPEECH

" NO DICTATION ” SAYS MR SEMPLE ANTI-BOARD AND ANTI-COMMISSION , MANDATE [Special to the ‘ Stak.’] WELLINGGTON, January 10. Dictation by the newspapers as to what he shall say or do is not going to bo suffered by Mr Semple, Minister of Public Works, who is fond of direct speech and hard-hitting metaphors. Today ho called attention to a sub-leader in the ‘ Dominion ’ commenting on his Christchurch statement that certain board members, instead of being given big salaries, would be given a pair of running shoes.. This was published under the heading ‘ An Unfortunate Lapse,’ and the article wound up with comment that Mr Semple’s statement was an unfortunate lapse, which fairminded people and Mr Semple’s colleagues in Cabinet would regret. “ Let me tell the newspapers that this was no unfortunate lapse,” said Mr Semple. “ What I said, I said deliberately. I nioanfc it, and mean it, and have •no apology to make. The boards and committees which the last Government allowed to usurp the rights and privileges of Parliament must understand that they will no longer be permitted to continue. I carried on a vigorous campaign through New Zealand, addressing thousands of people, and I fought my own personal campaign with this issue prominently in the foreground. I found people practically unanimous on the subject, it being the general opinion that tHe rights and privileges of Parliament (in other words, of the people) must not be delegated to boards which have no responsibility to the people. Placing this contention in the forefront of my campaign, I was given an emphatic mandate to help carry this policy into effect. Some boards have taken unto themselves so much authority and power that they have turned into nothing short of a dictatorship. That must stop. “ What I have said, I have said in the name of those who gave me a definite mandate, and I want no lessons from anyone about what I shall say. I do not believe in a chained democracy, hamstrung and hampered by reactionary boards and committees, which have no responsibility to the people. It cannot be gainsaid that New Zealand gave this Government an anti-board, anticommission, and anti-committee mandate, and we know what we are going to do.” Mr Semple said it was possible that the Highways Board would be retained, but it certainly would be necessary to reconstruct it. It would have to be made more effective, with a greatlyincreased measure of Government control. He found, as Minister of Transport, that he had little or no power ; yet he was responsible to the people for the money collected. While he had little jurisdiction, the board had a practical monopoly of the expenditure and the allocations..

“ I am going to tell the world my message in my own language,” concluded Mr Semple, “ and no one is going to pick my words for me. Although I am a Minister of the Crown I am still the same Bob Semple.”