BUILDING MORE SHIPS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3375, 2 January 1920, Page 6

BUILDING MORE SHIPS.

AND STILL MORE SHIPS. ‘ ‘‘''‘''‘‘‘‘l*‘ .Mr H. W. Flashma-n, secretary of the Broken Hill Proprietary ’s Steel Works at Newcastle; responding to a toast on behalf of ‘Ministers and directors, said:——— “As Australians we have great reason to be proud of the steel works, and We trust that as a result of your visit this afternoon you will carry away a. feeling that those whose foresight and faith in Australia caused these great Works at VValsh Island to be established are not less justified by the fruits of their pioneer work. In these days when all thoughtful men every-; where are anxious and troubled about ’the Valet ‘-and complicazted problems, political, economic, and human, that have arisen out of the war, the exist-,' : once of these two great works, side by,side, both in full working swing, must I streiigtlien the hope and stir the reasonable optimism of each as we enter] upon the task of reeons-truction. At Walsh Island we are equipped anid'pre—pared to do varied lines of engineering work, and we solicit your inquiries, but to-day we age concentrating on the thing most needed. Under the dime tion of Ml‘ Cutler and Mr Bomphrey we are building ships. We are build-U ing on three ways——we expect to lay ( down more ways. In fact, we will not { be -doing our bit if we don’t-. During the war Great Britain lost over 10,00_0,000 tons -of ships. Prior to ‘the war 2,000,000 tons were added each year to the world’s fleets. This increase was met possible from 1914 onwards. The losses exceeded all the new tonnage built. The world needs 15,000,000 tons to-day. Walsh Island and the steel works are out to fill the gap where we can with ships made in Australia.” V