THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times. PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS FRIDAY JUNE 25, 1915. THE MAKING OF SHELLS

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 49, 25 June 1915, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times. PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS FRIDAY JUNE 25, 1915. THE MAKING OF SHELLS

The proposal tb-t has been made to establi-h a factory to turn out big gun ammunition in New Zealand may appear at first Bight not only feasible, but desirable; but a little consideration will show the enormous difficulties in the way of its success, and that even if success could be assured the Empire would be benefitted more by the energies employed in securing: it being turned into other channels For years we have been matting at the Mount Eden factory of the Colonial Ammunition Company a great part of the rifle cartridges used in the Dominion, and it is argued from that that it would be an easy matter to establish wo ks capable of turning out high explosive shells, shrapnel, and the various kind of projectiles required not only by field artillery but by tha large calibre guns used in seige trains and the navy. That we Bhould have to import not only all the material but also the expensive and highly-complicated machinery and skilled instructors necessary in the process does not sdein in any way to daunt the projectors. And how complicated that machinery would have to be cannot be for a moment doubted by anyone who has seen not only the number but the intricacy of tbe machines through which a single rifle cartridge has to pass on its way from the flat sheet of brats to the finished article ready to receive the cordita charge and the nickel-platcd bullet. If we admit that the question of expense, necessarily very large, ought not to daunt us, there yet remains a moat important factor to be reckoned with, and that is the time that must undoubtedly elapse between the decision to install a factory and the day on which itd first finished product could be issued. A year would alinoEt certainly be all too short a time to allow. lwo years wjul I probably be required, and in two years much might happen to make us regret a hasty decision to a t our hands to a task that can be lar batter performed in the Mother C'juutry. Here we have oj.cn to us two ways and" only two|to serve tbe Empire -by meeting our enemies in the liild and by growing food, foo l j and yet more food for the armies at tic front and the armies in the arms and munitions factories. 11 we made shell? here lliey would not be to use

in New Zealand. No shot will be tired at an enemy fieri until the British Navy is under tha waves it eo proudly iides t„-day—and ir that time should curae resistance wvuld be in vain. To what end then should we carry materials over so many miles of sea to manufacture them by dear ar.d unaccutsomed labour, and then to take them back over the same long route to be used, when the work can be done on the threshhold of the front for a traction of the price. If we have any surplus labour it can be better employed on the farms than in a factory for which we have neither the machinery, the material uor the skilled instructors.