CANON AND MR. SEMPLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19625, 9 May 1938, Page 5

CANON AND MR. SEMPLE

BOTH GUESTS AT CHATEAU NO PERSONAL CONTACT (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Although by a strange coincidence both . the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, and Canon E. A. Gowring, of Bristol, spent Saturday night under the same roof at the Chateau Tongariro, they did not meet personally or carry further their public controversy concerning the trend to a political dictatorship in the Dominion, and the increase of crime and drunkenness of young New Zealanders.

Mr. Semple, who arrived in Wellington on Friday from the South Island, left again on Saturday on a visit to Rotorua and the South Auckland district. Canon Gowring was already at the Chateau when the Minister arrived on Saturday evening, but although Mr. Semple was pointed out to him by a guest he made no move to introduce himself or take up the Minister’s challenge, nor did the Minister seek the canon’s acquaintance, according to a Wellington business man who was present. “THe canon told me that as the Minister had insulted him by insinuating that he was a liar and a cur, he would not talk to the Minister unless the Minister retracted the words and apologised,” said the business man.

The canon left the Chateau yesterday for Pipiriki, intending to make the boat passage on the Wanganui River before coming to Wellington to join the liner Arawa which is sailing for Southampton on May 20. Yesterday the Minister left on a duck shooting expedition prior to fulfilling his political engagements. In a telephone interview at Pipiriki Canon Gowring confirmed the repor that he had known Mr. Semple was at the Chateau, but that he had not spoken with him. He gave no reasons.