AUSTRALIA'S WOODEN SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1919, Page 6

AUSTRALIA'S WOODEN SHIPS.

HUGE COST OF CONTRACT. An important statement relating to the cancellation of contracts for the building of wooden snips in Australia was made by the Acting Minister for the Navy in the House of Representatives yesterday in reply to a question asked by Mr. Mahouy (New South Wales). The Acting-Minister said the contracts which had been cancelled were the Watlace Power Boat Company's contract for six ships and Hughes, Martin and Washington's contract for six ships. Kidman and Mayoh's contract for six ships had been varied by the cancellation of four, of the vessels. As regards compensation, the Wallace Power Boats Company were paid one sum of £72,500; Kidman and Mayoh would be paid at the rate of £5 per ton dead-weight capacity of the four ships, Which would amount to approximately £52,000. The reasons for eellation aud payments were that the Government considered it sound policy, after the conclusion of the war, not to complete the contracts for wooden ships, and the payments made included progress pay incuts and covered contractors' liabilities, as well as some measure of compensation. Advice had been received from the Commissioner for Australia in the United States indicating that contracts for building 385 wooden vessels were cancelled by the American Government, at an average cost of £l3 5s 4d per ton, or a total cost of £14,042,870, and that they further cancelled the building of 52 ships at a cost rather more than that involve'd in the cancellation of the 385 ships. This included 342 vessels the construction of which had not commenced and 94 vessels in various stages of construction, mostly uuder 50 per cent, completed. The Acting-Minister for the Navy told Mr. Higgs (Queensland) in the House of Representatives, that the Acting Prime Minister would make a complete statement at an early date regarding the shipbuilding programme of the Government. He intimated that the cabled news as to the Prime Minister's ordering of certain ships of 22,000 tonnage was not correct. Mr. Higgs had asked whether there was- any necessity for secrecy regarding the matter, in view of the cablegrams that had been published.