MANUFACTURE OF SHELLS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 64, 15 March 1916, Page 8

MANUFACTURE OF SHELLS.

■ NOT PRACTICABLE IN NEW ZEALAND. STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER. A letter was received at yesterday's meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board j from the Hon. A. M. Myers in which the Minister for Munitions definitely intimated that the manufacture of shells was not practicable in the Dominion. Correspondence has passed between the Harbour Board and the Minister with | reference to the assistance that might j be rendered by the former body in the event of the Government undertaking., the manufacture of shells. The Minis-1 iter's letter of yesterday stated that the] ; experiments, conducted at the Addington , ; railway workshop. ' demonstrated the ; practicability of making 18-pound c\- ' plosive shells in New Zealand, but their manufacture in sufficient quantities t > appreciably augment the supplies already available could not be undertaken without seriously interfering with the ordinary production of the railway and other. workshops. The Minister added that the : supplies in the various theatres of w.'.r j were now on a more satisfactory footing. | and the Government had decided .that I New Zealand could do better service l>y concentrating her energies in the maintenance of food supplies exported from the country.