AMERICA.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 May 1918, Page 3

AMERICA.

INTERESTING NEWS ITEMS. GREAT NEW GUN BUILT. VANCOUVER, May 1. The United States Shipping Board is now operating more than 4,000,000 tons of shipping. Another million tons has been launched, and still another million will be available between April and September. A Washington message states that John D. Ryan, copper magnate, has been appointed director of America’s aircraft production, talcing the place of Howard Coffin. There will be a reorganisation of the central control_ A Philadelphia message states that what is described as the greatest engine of artillery produced during the war has been completed. It is a new j super-gun, which was planned, designed and constructed within ten weeks. A New York message states that American newspapers will probably be reduced 50 per cent, in size during the coming year, according to opinions of the Publishers’s Association.

A message from Lima, Ohio, states that three fires broke out simultaneously at the Lake Erie Western Railway shops, practically destroying a £IOO,OOO plant. The water pressure was cut at an unknown point, and the hose was also cut. One man has been arrested. Fourteen locomotives, which are urgently needed in war work for new troop trains, were destroyed.