HOME DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 9

HOME DEFENCE

MORE BUILDINGS

EXTRA ACCOMMODATION

To cater for additional military requirements within the Dominion the Government is embarking upon an extensive building programme. The Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) j stated last night that extra accommojdation had to.be provided at the three j district schools to cope with the increased numbers of officers and noncommissioned officers to be trained, and buildings for this purpose were to be put up immediately. Provision was also being made for additional,buildings at Waiouru for the training of Territorials. Though only key buldings were to be erected there, the programme was heavy. The Government was considering the question of giving more intensive training to Territorial officers during the winter, and the troops at Waiouru would be housed in tents while undergoing their training, extending up to three months. The percentage basis on which contractors built the military camps when the war broke out is likely to be dropped. The Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) stated I that the Public Works Department was obtaining quotations from builders for the work, there being no time to invite tenders. Mr. Semple said the. first effort would be concentrated on Waiouru, the buildings there being of the first importance. No time would be lost, as he was satisfied that the contractors for all the camp buildings would play the same part as they had done when the call was made to them in September. "NO RIPE CHERRIES FOR ANYBODY." I Asked if steps were to be taken _to prevent carpenters earning .the high wages they were reported to have received before, Mr. Semple said: "There will be no ripe cherries for anybody, on the job. This work is in the interests of the defence of the country and the Empire, and people who are called on to do the job will fully recognise that. This is ho time to work for profit; it is the time to work for their lives and liberty. Knowing the contractors and men as I do, I know that they will respond to the call when it comes and forget their own petty inMr. Semple said the call had been made upon thousands of young New Zealanders to give up their occupations and go into the firing line, and those who were left behind should make sacrifices with the same spirit. No sacrifice they could make could be as great as that of the soldier, who was willing to give his life.