MR. SEMPLE’S REPLY

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 February 1937, Page 14

MR. SEMPLE’S REPLY

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING? [FEB PBEBS ASSOCIATION.! QUEENSTOWN, February 18. A reply to the statements made by the leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, and Mr .1. Hargest, member for Awarua, following his criticism of their absence from their electorates during his visit was made to-day by the Minister for Public Works (Hon. R. Semple). Mr Semple detailed the works which had been begun in the Southland district since his previous visit 11 months ago, and stated that altogether more than £300,000 was likely to be spent in that area. “Mr Hamilton was advised on January 19 that I was making a tour of Southland, arriving at Invercargill on approximately February 12,” said Mr Semple, “and was asked to advise early what business he wished transacted. Qn February 2, a. fortnight later, no reply had been received, and a reminder was sent to Mr Hamilton, when he advised that he would like me to visit Otautau, if not also Tuatapere. Final details of the itinerary were then completed and on Februaiy 5 I advised Mr Hamilton that I would extend my tour and make the whole of Tuesday, February 15, available in his district. “I purposely did not in the first instance fix a definite itinerary, as I wished to co-operate with the:member as far as possible, and transact all the necessary business. My first intention was to meet all the deputations in Invercargill, and it was purely on Mr Hamilton’s representations that I visited his district, and that I changed my itinerary. Mr Hamilton’s excuse is that the date of the meeting he attended had been fixed three months beforehand. He must, therefore, have known when he requested me to visit his district that he would be absent when 1 arrived. I naturally expected, after changing my itinerary to suit Mr Hamilton, that he would be present during my visit. I might also inform Mr Hamilton that both myself and the Minister for Mines (the Hon. p. C. Webb) missed an important caucus and several Cabinet meetings to visit Southland to attend to the needs of the district, Mr Webb’s attention being concentrated on the mining industry. If we could do this, surely Mr Hamilton could at least postpone his meeting. 1 have no more to say to Mr Hamilton. His reply to my statement was an ineffective attemnt to defend himself, but be it said* to his credit that it was not couiched in objectionable language.” Referring to Mr Hargest’s suggestion that when he visited Southland 11 months ago he made promises which he had not fulfilled, the Minister spoke of a number of major public works which were to be undertaken in Southland as a result of his last visit. Altogether these would involve the expenditure of more than £300,000.

“POLITICAL MOUNTEBANK.” • “Mr Hargest refers to me as the political mountebank of the Government, and accuses me of going up and down this country abusing the Opposition,” the Minister continued. “My reply to that falsehood is that I have never addressed a public meeting in NeYV Zealand since the election with the exception of two meetings at the Manukau. by-election. It is well known that Mr Hargest took a prominent part in that by-election for which the Government is grateful because his effort added considerably to the crushing majority received by the Labour candidate. It was not until I arrived in Invercargill that I made any reference to the Opposition. Since the by-election I was concentrating upon my job and had forgotten that the Opposition existed. The first thing that prompted me to say one word against the leader of the Opposition was when I read his public statement in Invercargill that people who voted for the Labour Government were irresponsible people who believed in mob rule,” Mr Semple said. “This was not only an insult to the Government, but an insult to tens of thousands of people who voted against the previous Government for no other reason than that they had for the last four years been misled and betrayed by it, and I would not have been human, if I had not said something in their defence. “I took strong exception, too, to Mr Hargest scuttling from his constituency to a meeting in Wellington to consider ways and means of defeating the present Government, and on l his own statement sending a wire to Mr W. M. C. Denham, a su'pporter of the present Government to do the work while he was busy undermining the member along with other members of the Government from whom he had asked this 1 favour. If I was guilty of such conduct Mi- Hargest would not only be entitled, to refer to m© as a mountebank, but he would certainly be entitled to say that I possessed the conscience of a political imposter. “Mr Hargest seems to feel that I am concerned about his activity in the political arena,” the Minister concluded. “I wdnt to advise him that I am mot a scrap concerned. He and one or two others in his party are the best political asset the Labour Government have, and I would seriously advise him to increase his activities if possible. I should be very thankful if he would pay my district a visit. There is one thing I would ask Mr Hargest to do, and that is to give the public of Southland a comparison between the activities and the achievements of the Labour Government in Southland for the 11 months of its administration as disclosed in my statement, as against tjie 'progress made in that district during the six years’ administration of his Government. We could then leave it to the people to judge.”