TYRE FACTORY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 180, 14 May 1935, Page 5

TYRE FACTORY.

CONSTRUCTION IN DOMINION. MATTER NOT DECIDED. / (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 13. The possibility of the erection in New Zealand, of,a factory for the manufacture of tyres was mentioned by Mr P. W- Litchfield, president of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company, and a leading American industrialist, who is passing through Auckland by the Aorangi. .Mr Litchfield said the proposal for a. tyre factory in the Dominion was already ■ under consideration, but it appeared that tyres could be imported cheaper than. they could be manufactured. It was doubtful, too, whether economic conditions would justify the establishment of a special plant. Mr Litchfield, who is en route to Buitenprg, Java, for the formal opening of the company's new_ factory there, has been 35 years in tne service of Goodyear's, .having started as superintendent at the home plant at Akron, Ohio, in 1900, shortly after his graduation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. Long interested in public affairs, Mr Eitchfi.eld has written arid spoken .extensively in-the United States, and'is serving a- second term as a director of the United States/phahiber of Commerce. He lias served on many industrial and ' governmental comr mittees. Another interest of Mr Litchfield's is Zeppelin transportation. H<? has projected a trans-Pacific and transAtlantic airship service to bring the three continents closer together, stimulate commerce and the exchange of commodities. He negotiated the Zeppelin rights for America in 1926, built the largest dock or hangar in the world at Akron Airport, developed an airship building organisation there, and maintains a fleet of six non-rigid airships in several parts of the United States. A scheduled Pacific crossing pould be made in six days, it is estimated, making a substantial saving in Steamship time.. The projected transAtlantic route would be developed jointly with Dr. Hugo Eckner, famous skipper of the Graf Zeppelin, with the American and German companies exchanging traffic and facilities.; The company has :been in the lighter-than-air division of aeronautics since 1910. It has built more than 1000 observation and training and more than 100 airshi>-s of f arious types. •'■' ' " rV X ' '. ,1 ' ,f l V > ' Vl :':'-./■■