REPORT DENIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22585, 13 March 1948, Page 6

REPORT DENIED

REASON FOR RETURN NOT DUE TO DISPUTE MR. SEMPLE’S STATEMENT ;(P.A.) AUCKLAND. March 12. A denial that he returned to New Zealand because of the Maraetai dispute was made by the Minister of Works. Mr. R. Semple, on his arrival by air from Sydney this morning. “I booked my passage back before I heard about the dispute,” he said. Mr. Semple added that he had received no official communications on the subject and all he knew was what he had read in the press. Though Mr. Semple will be in Auckland till Monday he will not visit Maraetai.

After attending to “some small jobs” in Auckland, including a look at housing projects, he will report to Cabinet on the result of his mission in Australia, where he has been investigating the prospects of obtaining supplies of steel for New Zealand. The Maraetai troubles might then be discussed, and it would be decided whether he would go there.

As Mr Semple indicated before his departure for Australia that he might have to go to India and England, speculation was aroused as to whether his early return was connected with the dispute at the hydro-electric works.