HEAVY INDUSTRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 January 1931, Page 3

HEAVY INDUSTRY

DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN SUCCESS OF DIESEL COUNTItV ‘EMI’iltE-MINDED" Interested in machinery of all kinds, particularly in heavy steel, Mr C. W. Salmon, of the firm of Cory-Wright and Salmon, who returned by the Ulimaroa from America and England, where he lias been for the last fifteen months, learnt much of the industry, its conditions, and recent development abroad (states the “Dominion”). Air Salmon spent a good deal of time in the centres of industry such as Glasgow, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Birmingham, and Barrow-in-Furness. At the latter port, which has grown up round the Vickers-Armstrong works, ,he saw on the stocks a new liner of the fast cargocarrying type for the New Zealand Shipping Company, and at the same port saw the keel laid of the new ferry steamer Rangitira, for the Wellington-Lyt-telton service. He was also present at the launching of a steamer of about the size of the Maheno, and, seeing one of the directors (whom he knew very well) looking sad, Mr Salmon remarked that surely such an. occasion was one for joy rather than the reverse. The reply of the shipbuilder was that the trouble was that there was no job to take its place, and meant the dismissal of 400 men. It saddened him to have to do it, for these men were solely dependent on the works. They were the children of the Vickers-Armstrong works, and yet there was no work to give them. The only consolation Mr Salmon was able to draw from the matter was that the ironmasters of England still felt for their men, and were genuinely interested in their lot.

“I was immensely impressed,” said Mr Salmon, “to see that the works, the plant, and the methods were much more modern and efficient than formerly. The British people had found that they simply had to get out of their conservative old-fashioned ways of working ,an.d they had done it thoroughly by absorbing all that was best in the American and Continental methods. “As a result the cost of production is going down rapidly, and manufacturers are able to meet the market. England recognised that sterling quality is a virtue to he reckoned with in creating the selling value of her goods, and she is doing her best to retain that excellence of workmanship notable in the individual and apply it to mass production. EMPIRE-MINDED “Great Britain is becoming Empireminded, too. You cannot visit England without noticing that people generally appear to he more conscious of the Empire beyond the seas and what it means nationally than ever they were. They have been educated up to this by the efforts of the British Empire Marketing Board, whose pictorial posters flash at one from every vantage' point, by the Bcaverbrook Empire preference campaign, and by the depression. “The English housewife is at last beginning to ask for Empire products, and will not he put off with similar goods from Finland or Russia. This, of course, is of immense value to New Zealand, and it is up to us to co-operate by insisting on buyinlg imported goods only from the United' King. But to meet the market (people have less spending power than they have been accustomed to since before the war), New Zealand must got her exports down to pre-war prices. If we cannot do that by pursuing existing methods we must simply alter production methods until we can meet the market. There is the lesson of Australia, which with its high wages and heavy production costs, finds that it cannot sell its goods at a profit as the market is to-day.

DOMINION BEHIND IN TRAN SPORT

“Now Zealand lags behind in transport ’’’ continued Air Salmon. ‘ After seeing the latest- typos of motor omnibuses and motor-coaches in England, one cannot help but know that we are very much behind the Old Counhy. These arc so built and fitted that they are giving the public a sense of luxury in transport they never had before. Ihe design of the new buses is such that, noise is practically eliminated-they elide quietly and accelerate silently, and the fittings and upholstery provide the maximum degree of comfort. Running costs have been cut down, and the great or patronage accorded has lully repaid the enterprise shown in providing only the host. . “The success of the application of the Diesel engine using crude oil to buses and lorries is' well established. Ihe same drivers are employed as those used to petrol engines. The exhaust is colourless, and no more offensive than the exhaust of a petrol engine The feed is from a rear tank through a tube, just as is the case with petrol, and there is no more difficulty in starting up than there is with the ordinary motor-car fitted with an electric starter. The running cost of this type of vehicle has been reduced one-third by the Diesel, so it looks as though the Mure of the heavyoil vehicle is assured. Ihe crude o engine can fit in the same space as the petrol one, so there need be no difference in the size or contour of the bonnet, So far the application of the. Diesel engine to the ordinary motor-car lias motel . commercial basis, ta «- perimonts are being made n 'auoiw rlaccs and there is little doubt that E3W «'l .levdop fro,n lta» I» the manufacture and design of Diesel engines Great Britain stands ahead of tll “l°thhik the greater degree of comfort enjoyed in travelling bv motor-coach m England than here is due to the fac that at Home they have a spocinHy designed chassis for, motor-coaches, while here tliev put a coach or a large scivic. car on a lorry chassis, winch is by no means the same thing. the trolley bus coaiing “Tramways and tramways finance is still causing anxiety in. certain quarters ■it Home. From my observation I came i'o uTconrlusioi, that the trolley car or bus has come to stay. I saw them running in half a dozen cities, and for 'running cost and popularity with the public'they appear to supply what is wanted. There are good services of them at Bradford and Hartlepool, a=> well as at other Midland eitn»s. Ihe advantage tliev have over fixed iad hams are their mobility in traffic, their speech and the comparative absence of noise when rutiiuilft- l» »»•« P 1 "™’ V> <» trams have been given up, and t lie overhead wires are being used to feed th The°raibvays are feeling the co, ™^ ly 1 y tion of the road very severely. they are still getting the passenger am goods business for long journeys, -,], short journeys the road serv,c ; ’ f l their luxury coaches, are successlul competitors. To meet • tins some of the railway companies are putting > uxu, y coaches on the rails, drawn by light oilfired steam engines. These eliminate the cost of heavy locomotives, and give really excellent services between fixed points. One company is said to have lowered its running costs approximately

from £400,000 to £200,000 lust year by adopting the coaches in preference to the railway carriages.” THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE Mr Salmon is firmly of the opinion that the Imperial Conference, just over, has served a good purpose. "If it did nothing else,” said he, “it gave the Dominion representatives the chance to air their views on Empire trade, and as the result I would not bo at all surprised to see the English public demanding their leaders to come to some definite decision. Ido not hold that the conference was abortive, as some papers would have one believG, for I think it has left open a gateway for productive conversations in the future.”