PROGRESS OF BULLER

Grey River Argus, 1 December 1938, Page 8

PROGRESS OF BULLER

TRIBUTES PAID To Visiting Ministers [Per Press Association.] WESTPORT, November 30. Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Public Works and Transport, and Hon. P. C. Webb, Minister of Mines, who are visiting the Buller district, were the guests at a representative gathering of citizens and of'members of local bodies at a smoke concert at Westport to-night. • The Mayor (Mr J. Kilkenny), who presided, said that Hon. Mr Webb had started Westport on the road to progress, and had turned a down-trodden community into a prosperous one, with a great future. Paying a tribute to Hon. R. Semple ) the Mayor said that he was the greatest Minister of Public Works that the Dominion had had. Hon. Mr Webb commented at some length on the land development schemes in progress in the Buller district, which were proving successful, and also on the pakihi land experiments, which, he said, had produced great results. The prosperous state of the coal mining industry, not only in the Buller, but in other districts, was also commented on by the Minister.

Hon. R. Semple spoke of the use of the mechanisation system for the development of farm lands, and referred to the big experiment to be made in February at Westport. He predicted successful results, and also great benefits for those farmers who had large areas of land to clear. The Minister also paid a tribute to the Public Works Department Engineers in New Zealand, as being the best in the world.

The Ministers inspected the West-port-Inangahua railway and other works to-day, and also the pakihi land developmental areas, with which they were greatly impressed.