MR. SEMPLE’S REPLY

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1936, Page 7

MR. SEMPLE’S REPLY

TO UNION CRITICISM

“NO APOLOGY TO MAKE”

[PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, September 11. The controversy aroused by the intervention o£ the Minister for Public Works, Hon. R. ( Semple, m the Motueka aerodrome dispute has not yet died down. Mr Semple has issued a reply to the criticism of his actions voiced by the Auckland Carpenters and Joiners’ Union in which he defended his attitude and emphasised whta has already been done to alleviate the conditions of workers in his department since he took charge. “An explanation has been demanded from me about the action 1 took with the Motueka Public Works employees,” said the Minister, “and I am accused of criticising trade union officials. Let me say, first, that I have not done anything of the kind. I should like to remind members of the Auckland organisation who are so anxious to censure me and to blacken my name without evidence that when I took control there were young men in slave camps who were working 44 hours a week for 10/-. The maximum a married man could earn was 12/- a d'ay, but he seldom earned that. The maximum for single men on constructional works, apart from camps, was fl/- a day, while Maoris, strong and physically fit men, were being paid 5/a day. I removed those cruel anomalies. The single man is now paid the same as a married man and the Maori, for the first time in the history of this Dominion, stands upon the same level as his pakeha brother and receives the same treatment and wages. “As a result of the treatment I have meted out to Public Works employees the average wage for last month is more than 17/- a day. Some of the single men whom I took out of the slave camps are earning* twice as much in a day as they previously earned in a week. The maximum earnings of some of the men are more than 25/- a day, and for all these things the thanks I get from alleged Labour representatives is censure without a trial. I have no apologies to make to the Auckland organisation or to any other organisation in New Zealand for what I did at Motueka. 1 am at the moment one of the trustees of the public purse, and my job is to see that value is received for the money entrusted to my control. It is also my duty to see that all men employed are treated as willing workers should be treated. I have done this. The Public Works agreement is the best agreement of its kind in the world. Having done my duty, I look to the men to play the game with the Government that has played the game with them.”

SACKED HIMSELF. “I dismissed no union official at Motueka,” said the Minister about the Motueka aerodrome dispute. “The man who was once a branch secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union at Motueka, sacked himself. It is not my intention to name him. Out of mercy I withhold the details. Let the man himself tell his own record and give the reasons for his dismissal. I am prepared to be judged by the New Zealand Workers’ Union. Moreover, I am prepared to be judged by all the people of New Zealand. Personally, I do not care how much the men on public works criticise the Government, so long as they do their work.

“As I have said, they have got the best working agreement in the world. They have been given a five-day week and they have got all day Saturday to talk trade union principles and any other subject they like. I do not care how many times they criticise me. I do not court their favour, but as a trustee of the people and the public purse I am going to see that the money entrusted to me is wisely and well spent, and that those who are given jobs give a service to the Dominion that will measure up with the reward the Government is giving them. That is all I ask. and to suggest that I have victimised men because of their trade union principles is an infamous falsehood. “Let it be clearly understood that I do not desire even to belittle the work of union secretaries. I hold, however, that any man, whether he be a Minister of the Crown or a union secretary, must so concentrate on his job and do his best that no individual can be permitted to divert him from his task. If men are doing their work thoroughly and to the best of their ability they have little time to spare for belittling the work of other men. “This campaign of hate and slander against myself in particular,” said the Minister, “has been instituted by the Communist party, who are, in my opinion, the would-be wreckers of the nation and the enemies of mankind. I had not intended to have given that party any more publicity, and would have had nothing further to say, had it not been for the censure reported in the newspapers. This is my final word on the subject. I intend to go ahead with my job doing what I believe is in the best interests of the people of this country. I am not going to be side-stepped, bluffed, or bludgeoned by any group of people.”