ATTITUDE TO BOARDS

Waipa Post, Volume 52, Issue 3705, 10 January 1936, Page 7

ATTITUDE TO BOARDS

POLICY OF GOVERNMENT. Remarks illustrating the attitude of Cabinet to the boards associated with certain Government departments were made by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, during his address to the men at the Ashley River camp near Christchurch, on Thursday. Mr Semple referred more especially to his attitude as Minister of Transport toward the Transport Board. In later conversation with a reporter he gave his remarks a more general application, inferring that at present no particular board was singled out for criticism. . . When he had taken office as Minister of Transport, said Mr Semple in his address, he had found, in common with other Ministers, that the powers of the department had been delegated to a board. “ I have given notice to these gentlemen that they can obstruct no longer,” he said, “ and that instead of big salaries we will present them with running shoes.” Mr Semple’s subsequent statement was that certain of the boards—the Highways Board, for example—were probably capable of reorganisation, and so were likely to remain. Others, which might obstruct the Government in its efforts to rehabilitate the country, would have their salaries discontinued and would be given “running shoes.”