MR SEMPLE'S APPEAL FOR PATIENCE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 February 1936, Page 3

MR SEMPLE'S APPEAL FOR PATIENCE.

STRAIGHT TALK TO SCROUNGERS.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Last Nigra.

A declaration that all men employe a on public works jobs must join the NoZealand Workers' Union and that an. grievances Lad would be settled through representatives of that union was made by the .Minister of Public Works (Hon. R. Semnle) while addressing the men at the Mangere air base. Mr. Semple stated that this woulo expedite matters both for the depart nient and for the men and would avoul any stoppages on individual jobs owing to dissatisfaction. Mr. Semple told the men of the decision he had made regarding the introduction of the 40-hour week and equal pay for single and married man, also for the Maori and pakeha. It was a vicious system, he said, where men did the • aine job working side by side lor different rewards. If extra assistance had to be given to married men i! should be done and would be done by amendments to the family allowance provisions.

He had given instructions that an agreenienr should be arnveu at concerning the question of a minimum wage and tins would be ready for signature as soon as Parliament had made the necessary legislation for tae introduction of the reforms he proposed. "All tins requires money," said Mr. Semple, "and. remember money does not grow on mulberry bushes! The Finance Minister cannot create money with a wave of his hand. "Parliament has a big job ahead of it and it needs your co-operation in order to be entirely successful. We are giving to you men an incentive to work. We are providing modern facilities both for you and the engineers and the wheelbarrow will be thrown into the backwash of oblivion like some of the -M.P. 's at the last election. We have big jobs to do." When al! these improvements were made on public works it was expected, said Mr. Semple, that the men would give of their best. Any man who took a job with the Public Works Department thinking lie was going to have an easy time was making a terrible mistake.

"Good hard worn doesn'r Hurt any man as long as lie gets reward for it. I iaiow there have been men on public works who thought they were going to have the time of

their lives, but we won't have it. "Deputations from organisations ha\e waited on me and their intei views have lasted :i couple of minutes. We have a. responsibility to the nation and to the men to uuna ;\ew Zealand and make it, tne pmeo ,t otignr, to be. We demand good work and cooperation by the men we employ. We will have nothing to do with Communist organisations. They conic on to the job as a destructive force to teach men to loaf."

Mr. SempJe said he was going to visit every Public Works job in the country and from his own experience he would examine their possibilities. lie hoped they would have more useful and profitable jobs for men in the near future. There would have to be a re-grading of men.

Those who expected that the Labour Government could re-establish the country in 24 hours did not know what thev were talking about. They had already discovered that the country was down to zero and Cabinet was working every minute of the day in an effort to bring it back to stabilitv.

'•We are not going to be stampeded by anyone into doing the wrong thing '' said Mr. Semple. "We have got to have time. We have got to be cautious, and we have got to have co-operation and the trust of the men on the job.

"Listen to this: We have no time for the scrounger, for the street corner lounger or the stock exchange gambler. They are a curse to the country and a barrier to civilisation. When we have introduced our legislation, when we have given you the means whereby you can woik efficiently, and when we have given you an adequate reward, please step on it, because if you don't you will step out." lion. 11. 11.I 1 . Armstrong, in speaking to the men, also asked for their co-opera-tion in assisting the Labour Government to improve the conditions generally in Xuw Zealand. The Government could not mend matters in 48 hours, but they could be depended upon to do the right thing by the people of this country. He asked them to have patience and to put their confidence in their new leaders. Not only were the men to lie considered but there were also unemployed boys and girls and unemployed women.