Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1918. NEW BRITISH TONNAGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1813, 13 April 1918, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1918. NEW BRITISH TONNAGE.

REVIEWING the position of shipbuilding in Britain, the annual financial and commercial review of the London Times says the past year should, perhaps, be judged rather as one of preparation for the shipbuilding needs of a long war than by the actual tonnage launched. The want of co-ordination of effort in the early months of the year caused a considerable reduction in the tonnage which might have been launched had the policy non- initiated been put in operation at an earlier period. It was too often the case that when the necessary supplies of labour were available there w’as a shortage of shipbuilding material, and another cause of delay arose from the fact that hulls were completed before the machinery was ready. Immediate progress' was also hampered by the preparatory measures for a programme of standardised construction. The establishment of national yards in South Wales has been viewed as premature and unnecessary, being regarded as a threat to that, private enterprise which has won for the United Kingdom the permier place in the industry, while even as a war expedient the conse-quent-diversion of labour and materials was looked upon as a mistake. The reply to these objections is that existing yards will not be robbed either of labour or materials for the State yards, arid it is understood that measures are to be taken to ensure the fullest utilisation of the existing shipbuilding facilities beforee giving out work to the national establishments. The step.s which have been taken by the Gbyepniffent are, however, designed to provide for the possible needs of a very protracted war, and it may well be that before the end these national yards, as well as an augmented private shipbuilding industry, may he necessary to cope .with the need for tonnage. It is generally agreed that although the preparations for a programme of standardised shipbuilding may for the moment have retarded progress, it is destined, ip the long run to have the effect of expediting production, and unless the anticipations now entertained are grossly falsified the shipbuilding output for the current,year sho- 1

uld establish new “record’’ figures. Although only a. disappointingly small number of the standard vessels have been completed, this arises from the fact that it was necessary to clear the building slips of a large number of vessels already under construction. There are now a con* siderable number of the standard vessels approaching'completion. It is, of course, a material advantage that the machinery equipment of the ships now under construction, as well as the hulls, has been standardised, as this will serve to prevent a repetition of the delays which formerly hampered the delivery of new tonnage, , .