ASSISTANCE FROM BOARD

Southland Times, Issue 22856, 3 April 1936, Page 8

ASSISTANCE FROM BOARD

Gratitude Expressed CO-OPERATION WITH GOVERNMENT (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, April 2. Appreciation of the assistance he had received from the members of the Railways Board since the accession to power of the present Government was expressed by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in speaking on the second reading of the Government Railways Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-night. Mr Sullivan emphasized that in anything he might have to say about the board he was speaking in a purely impersonal sense. “From the moment I became Minister of Railways,” he said, “I have had extended to me every possible courtesy at the hands of the board. Practically at the beginning the members of the board, headed by the acting-chairman, made a courtesy call on me, and offered tlieir co-operation. I am bound, to say that they were as good as their word. At a later stage, when the Government had fully determined on its policy, I informed the members that it was the intention of the Government to abolish the board. I received a courteous reply, in which the members philosophically accepted the position, renewing their promises of co-operation. Latei they intimated that it was their wish that I should proceed in the same way as though the contemplated legislation was already on the Statute Book. With certain qualifications, it was agreed that I should act in the name of the board. I appreciate very much the attitude adopted by the members of the board.”