FEDERAL DEFENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 89, 14 April 1908, Page 7

FEDERAL DEFENCE.

SMALL ARMS FACTORY AT LITHGOW. Bj Telejrrtph.—Press Assoeiition.—Copyright. (Received April 14, 10.9 a.m.) .MELBOURNE, This Day. The erection of tho Federal smallarms factory at Lithgow will be commenced at once. The estimated cost is £70,000. The factory will at the start bo confined to tho making of rifles and bayonets, but eventually it will (according to the Age) also undertake tho making of shells and become a small arsenal. The factory will be situated closo to tho town of Lithgow, and near to the- railway lino. Australian iron and Australian wood will Bo used in the making of the rifles, and tho machinery — which is to bo driven by electricity — Will be so installed that it can bo modified or altered inexpensively as new devices aro invented and patterns change with the march of inventive cenins. The latest typo of War Office riflo will bo tho first weapon fashioned, but provision will bo made for making miniature rifles for cadets, and for rebnrrelling and repairing tho imported, rifles already ;n use. All inventions of n local character will be carefully reported upon —the pains now being taken over Mr. John Christian's now (Mildura) projectile is a case in pomt —and War Office help in tho btudy of foreign productions is to' be secured. Captain Collins has already been cabled to with reference to tho latest Hiram rifle. Great pains havo been taken by Mr. Ewing in connection with tho use of Australian mate rial 3 in every pait of the factory. The factory will be equipped from roof to foundations with locally mado articles, and everything possible will bo dono to stimulate Australian inventive genius in regard to mutters with which the factory will be concerned. As n matter of course, the overwhelming majority of tho workmen will bo Australians. One or two expert workmen will be imported from Birmingham, Enfield, Lack and Waltham Abbey. Tho imported workmen will teach Australian apprentices. Tho forogoing proposals apply, ceteris pnribus, also to the programme for the cordito factory to bt» erected ut Maribyrnong, in Victoria. In tho cuso of this factory, howoVov, it may not be necessary to import any workmen from England. The knowledge of tho manufacture of explosives possessed by Mr. Huke, and tho practical evperienco gained by tho Dofenco Department of tho working of such an undertaking aa that of tho Colonial Ammunition Company, render it unlikely that any specially export aid from nbrpad will be required by the Govornment.