RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19126, 22 September 1936, Page 5

RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH

DISPUTE AT MOTUEKA

COMMENT BY MEMBER

MR, SEMPLE’S ATTITUDE

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day

“Ono has heard of the Motueka dispute,” said Mr. K. •). Ilolyoakc, M.l’., for Motueka, in an address last night. “It seems that there has been a lot ol misunderstanding about it. “It is to me a matter of the right of free speech which the Hon. It. Semple, among others, has always fought for in the past. I notice that tlm workers have been rather incensed by what lias occurred, and 1 agree with the unions which have passed resolutions against Mr. Semple, lie has put himself offside.

“There were ISO men working on the aerodrome from which the resolutions came. That they are of a good type of man is shown by the fact that they were earning from 19s to 24s a day. Some of them are my own relatives, and they arc all jolly good chaps. “There was nothing obnoxious or wrong in their resolutions-, which were only an expression of their opinions. The •resolutions were sent to the secretary and then, 1 don’t know why, to Mr. Semple. “Mr. Semple went to the newspapers and referred to Communists, right outside the matter, just to find a whipping horse. If Mr. Semple has done no more than help to pass such a. resolution in his life, then he would not have much to answer for, would he?”