WAR INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 5

WAR INDUSTRY

AUSTRALIA’S REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT HUGE & GROWING OUTPUT. OF WEAPONS & MUNITIONS. ißy Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) MELBOURNE, October 21. “Australia will give a lead to the world in cruiser type tank production before very long,” declared the Minister of the Navy, Mr Makin, in the course of a statement today. He also referred to the enormous output of ammunition at various factories, chiefly in the eastern States. “In New South Wales alone £6,000,000 worth of orders for gun ammunition has been placed with private industry in the past' 12 months,” he said. “These figures can be multiplied several times if similar orders placed in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are taken into account. “A new factory for-the manufacture of cartridge cases has been erected at a cost of £3,500,000 in South Australia and will employ 700 men and 1000 women. Still another Government factory being erected in Queensland for the same purpose will employ 4500 persons. “In addition to the big Government factories engaged in shell production, there are in Australia 74 annexes attached to privately-owned factories, of which 22 are in New South Wales. “Literally, hundreds of factories and workshops all over the Commonwealth have changed from the manufacture of peace time products to the manufacture of death-dealing missiles. A factory which used to make racecourse totalisators is now making 25-pounder shells. Another which made kitchen hardware is now making hand grenades, and another which turned out agricultural implements is making howitzer shells, resulting in the production of tanks, guns and ammunition reaching astronomical figures, quite apart from the ever-growing output of aircraft and flying equipment.”