POLITICAL BICKERING

Evening Star, Issue 22578, 20 February 1937, Page 21

POLITICAL BICKERING

REPLY TO MR SEMPLE [Per United Press Association.] INVERCARGILL, February 19. In reply, to the further statement of the Minister of Public Works (Mr Semple), Mr J. Hargest said to-night that he did not desire to continue the newspaper discussion with Mr Semple, whoso last statement ranged over the years since 1921 and on into the future, and who, in setting out his own achievements in Southland during the past 15 months, confused promises with work actually done. Mr Harges-. said lie had set out to refute the Minister’s two statements—that he had administered a snub, and that he had neglected his electorate during the Minister’s visit. Ho believed that he had satisfied every unbiassed reader in respect of both. All the references to the Manakau by-election and the challenge to visit Mr Semple’s electorate were not worthy of notice. He would probably call in on the Minister’s electorate, but would certainly not even mention Mr Semple’s na' e. It was the policy of the National Party to attack policies, not persons. The charge that while he was in Wellington "he was attempting to undermine the position of the present Government and bring about its defeat was ludicrous coming from one who, for over 20 years, had used every effort to discredit previous administrations, said Mr Hargest. Referring to the challenge to compare the record in Southland of the past Government in four years of office with that of the present Government’s 15 months of administration, Mr Hargnst said that one could noint to such works as the Lumsden-Josephville read, the Kingston-V>ncrnstown road, 60 odd miles ,of the Eglinton mad, and many scores of miles of drainage compared with the beginning of the Lornevillo overbridge, and, on the Minister’s own showing, 350 feet of the Homer tunnel.