NEW ZEALAND'S OPPORTUNITY

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 69, 21 March 1918, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S OPPORTUNITY

10 THI EDITOR.

Sir,—There appeared in your issue of yesterday-a cable from San Francisco: "A reinforced concrete ship of 70&0 tons has been launched at a Pacific port., Fifty-four others are to be built without delay." ' By many this will simply be passed over as an interesting item. I should like it to be read as being of momentous value to the world,- and of much more importance to this Dominion than can be estimated. " As a designer jin reinforced concrete in buildings, I : have known the possibilities of this me- | dium in construction, not only in partial buildings, but in all manner of works too numerous to mention here, and amongst these, in particular, is ship-building. I have, advocated . this latter for tweDty years, predicting to mjj friends that they would sail the ocean in ocean liners in reinforced concrete ships. I have also had the honour (some two and a-half years ago) of drawing the attention, of irhe Home Government to this rapid form of shipbuilding, pointing out the great saving in skilled mechanical labour, etc. But this is not to-the point. The great interest to New Zealand lies in the fact that this is a country containing, both in the raw and in the manufactured article, everything required in Al concrete. ■ Aggregates of the first order abound all over the country; \ steel is waiting development; cement, equal to any made anywhere, is made in several parts of New Zealand. The climatic conditions (warm and humid) from Nelson northwards are excellent. This is important. We should be a great shipbuilding nation; why not? It is rather a reversion from ship-building to mere houses and fences. But your page Bin to-day's issue," dealing with disastrous fires, stresses the value, almost the necessity, of concrete. It matters not whether our citizens require homes, fences, roads, or ships; it is worth the while of both the capitalist and the people to enquire into the virtues of a material which is permanent. Concrete has come to stay. . It is going to entirely displace the wood regime and,,in part, the iron age. Hoping this short letter will intei-est your readers.—l am, etc., R, m. DE MONTALK. F.N.Z.I.A. 19th March.