THE TUNNEL FIASCO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25668, 17 October 1944, Page 6

THE TUNNEL FIASCO

Sir,— According to parliamentary reports. Mr Semple objects very strongly to having any blame attributed to himself for the waste of money on the Turakina and Fordell tunnels. It seems to me that when credit is given to him for having at one time been a good navvy that spelt the end of his usefulness to this country and that he should now be scrapped. I notice that his friend, the member for Gisborne, supports him. I would like to point out that this member s only experience of railway construction consisted in his acting as secretary and agitator for the New Zealand Workers Union in the Gisborne district, where, about 1928-1929. he acted as local representative at a time when every man who worked on the job had to pay £1 entrance fee and 5s per annum subscription tb the Worker, which paper, I understand, Is now called the Standard, and he used to hold stop-work meetings and also Sunday afternoon meetings and on every opportunity advise the men to fight the Government, which, of course, was not a Labour one at that time. The Minister of Works claims the credit for having imported bulldozers, but I would rather give credit to the American “ bagmen " who sold them, as anyone who reads must know that the work done by these machines in the Panama canal was sufficient recommendation.in itself, but one might think, from what he himself says, that Mr Semple was himself the inventor. —I am, etc., J. A. Cole. Dunedin, October 10. [Abridged.—Ed. O.D.T.]