IMPROMPTU GATHERING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19336, 28 May 1937, Page 2

IMPROMPTU GATHERING

MINISTER: AT 7 RUATORIA TRIBUTE TO MEMBER y (Herald Special Reporter.) : - te PUIA, this day. The Minister of Public Works, the Hon.TR. .Semple,, with Mrs. Semple and party, lunched at the. Alanutahi. Hotel, Ruatoria, yesterday as the guests of Mr. P. G. Burton, the licensee, arid Mrs. Burton. After lunch, the Minister addressed in the commercial room of the hotel, a large number of settlers and residents who had come to meet him. Aft. A. J. 11. Kirkham presided. Since coming into the constituency, Mr. Semple said, he had been treated very well indeed, and lie wished to thank the people for their hospitality. He was spending a week in the electorate at the‘invitation of Mr. A. Gordon Hultquist, M.P. Mr. Hultquist was a terrible pest (laughter), always on the Minister’s doorstep, pestering him to spend! hioney in the Bay of Plenty electorate. In Mr. Hultqnist’s eyes there was only one place in New Zealand, and that was the Bay of Plenty. If Mr. Hultquist had his way he would have the whole Treasury emptied into his electorate. However, lie would see that the Bay of Plenty would get its fait share of expenditure. - Mr. Hultquist: That will do me. Mr. Semple said he would give as much help to the settlers as the public purse would allow. ; Shopping Centres Mr. Hultquist said that Ruatoria and Te Araron were the two shopping centres/irr the most isolated part of New Zealand. It was a most peculiar electorate because all the roads off the main road were access roads, and he would continue to be on the Minister’s doorstep until alb demands were satisfied. They had had a very good Minister in the late Air. K. S.' Williams, but he would not spend money at his own back door, preferring to look after the rest of the Dominion.

Afterwards the party proceeded some distance up the Tapuwaeroa road, over a number of Tough water courses seeing evidence of stream and river erosion, and on the return journey called at Mr. and Mrs. 0. T. Williams’ home for afternoon tea.

The (Minister ..departed from his original intention of not visiting side roads, and travelled a short distance up the Mangaoporo Valley in the Waiapu County to see the effects of river erosion and to meet settlers who sought a Public Works Department subsidy of £3 for £1 to build a bridge to serve eight properties at a cpst estimated at £3400. When submitting this estimate, the county engineer, Mr. A. K. Gilmour, said that the County Council would not be able to construct the bridge with a smaller subsidy than £3 for £l. The. Minister said that it was unusual to provide a greater subsidy than £2 for £1 for such bridges, but he promised to have the matter investigated when definite proposals were submitted to the .department.