NO MAN MUZZLED

Evening Star, Issue 22271, 24 February 1936, Page 7

NO MAN MUZZLED

RIGHT TO 1 FREE SPEECH WORKS MINISTER'S VIEW [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON/ February 22. The value of free speech, and an untrammelled interchange .of thought was stressed by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. It. Semple) at the annual dinner of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers when he made it clear that the Government hoped to encourage development in this direction. "If a man serves a nation,” Mr Semple said, “ the nation should be big enough' to give him the right to express his free and unfettered thoughts upon every question that facfes the nation, and I want to tel! the public servants of this country that they are going to get that right —a free and unfettered right. I want them to look upon me not as a master, hut as a mate. Ido not want to put a padlock on their lips. When they have something that I should know, that the Government should know, that the nation should know, I ask them to come to me. They may rest assured that we will not say> ‘ Get into your dugouts and shut up.’ We will say ‘Hallelujah.’ We want the thoughts of .the men and women. ‘‘lt is only by free and unfettered thoughts,” ‘Mr Semple continued, “that we can solve the problems ahead of us. We are passing through a transitionary stage. _ There was never a period in the history of mankind when the thoughts of everyone woul'd be more welcome than they are 10-day. No man need he muzzled; no man should be muzzled. The thoughts that men and women have and develop as a result of their work and their experience are the gifts of God, and they should he given to their fellow creatures, and the Government of to-day will encourage them to do so.”