LOCAL INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2525, 28 July 1915, Page 11

LOCAL INDUSTRY

FOSTERED BY THE WAR. Necessity is the mother of invention, and incidentally is serving, to breakdown the old belief that the imported article is the best. The war has forced upon the local Defence authorities the necessity of-getting certain articles, of equipment manufactured here that were formerly imported. A visit j.aid to Messrs. Balling'er and Co.'s vorkshop yesterday disclosed the fact that bri-ss shoulder badges, consisting of the letters "N.Z.M.R." or others signifying the unit to which the .wearer belongs, and which used to be imported, are now being made at tho factory. For this work two sets of dies had to be made in Sydney, and the sheet brass r.sd to be imported. Each badge requires three stamps, one for tho shape of the piece of brass that is to form the initials, and two to cut out t'he spaces between and within the letters, after which the pin eyes are soldered in, and the whole article is finished and burnished. Messrs: Ballinger and Co. are also making brass hooks for the webb belting of the n ei.'s equipment, and 1 fern badges for the collars of certain battalions. 'They are also turning out hundreds of baking dishes for the camp kitchens in different parts of tho" district.

Other articles connected with a soldier's outfit that are being turned out at Ballinger's are "pull-throughs"' for rifle cleaning, belt buckles, telephono reels for the Field Artillery, and hat badges. ' Elsewhere in New Zealand firms are now making spurs and stirrups, said to be quite equal to the Home article, and almost as cheap.