“Anyone Can Look at My Bank Account”

Northern Advocate, 10 August 1938, Page 4

“Anyone Can Look at My Bank Account”

[Special to "Northern Advocate.” 1 WELLINGTON, This Day. ‘T am accused of buying foreign machinery, and some people had the callous presumption to say I was a shareholder, and have a lot of money,” said the Minister of Public Works and Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, in speaking at Ngaio, under the auspices of the local branch of the Labour Party.

“Well, anyone can have a look at my bank account tomorrow,” added the Minister. “As a matter of fact, with the consent of Mr Speaker, I am prepared to place it before the House, and no one would get fat on it. The remarks emanate from people with depraved minds.

“I am supposed to be one of the greatest spendthrifts of them all. and because I have been dubbed a spendthrift, I felt it was my duty to meet the taxpayers of this Dominion to give them some first-hand knowledge of the department I control.” Mr Semple said it was not his intention to wander over the political arena, to make any general defence of the Government’s work, or any prognostication as to the future. Those things would be done in due course, when the political gong was sounded, and he would probably be back then at Ngaio in the scrum.

If he had the opportunity after the election, and he was sure he would, he would follow the American example, said Mr Semple, referring to the hit-and-run motorist. There, instead of putting people in gaol for three months, which imposed hardship on the wives and children, the hit-and-run driver was put in “clink” every week-end.