FINE ACHIEVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 147, 18 December 1943, Page 8

FINE ACHIEVEMENT

TRANSFER OF FACTORY

MINISTER'S DISCLOSURES

A review was given last night by the Minister of Supply and Munitions (Mr. Sullivan) of New Zealand's achievement in the production of small arms ammunition for the use of our forces and' as a contribution to the general war effort. Facts given by the Minister of necessity have been shrouded in a large degree of secrecy, but with the improvement in the Pacific war situation the Minister said it was now possible to draw a corner of the veil. One aspect dealt with by the Minister was the transfer of a factory and magazines from Auckland, which also invtolved the provision of housing accommodation for the employees and plant opperational services. The Minister said that with the advent of Japan into the war Auckland city, where the well-known small arms factory and the explosive magazines were situated, became a vulnerable area, and the Government was faced with the immediate necessity of transferring the factory and magazines to a comparatively safe location. After full consideration of several sites, it was decided to establish J,he factory in Hamilton and to shift there all the machinery and plant being used in Auckland and to disperse the magazines in rural areas. The Auckland factory had already been expanded considerably by the provision by the Government' of additional plant, but it was decided to organise a still greater expansion of production. Orders for the necessary plant and equipment were immediately placed, a considerable quantity of it being manufactured ; in the engineering shops cf the Dominion. NUMBER OF BUILDINGS. Mr. Sullivan gave some idea of the extent of the task and of the problems involved. It was most important, for instance, that the new factory should be split into self-contained production units so that in the event of one unit being put\out of action for any reason, output would only be partly affected. To permit or speedy building, cheap construction, and to allow, if need arose, for each section to be externally sandbagged against bomb blast, it was essential that each production unit be broken up into a number of separate buildings and dispersed over a large area rather than be a single large structure. This meant the erection of 24 factory buildings and a completely new arrangement of . plant and machinery. Adequate camouflage from air observation was also necessary. Housing accommodation had to be prepared for the employees. Plant operational services, such as water, gas, and electric power, had to be provided, and last, but by no mean least, it was vitally important that the transfer of machinery, etc., from Auckland be effected with the minimum of interruption to production. "How expeditiously the work was carried out will be apparent from the_ following progress dates." the Minister continued. "At the middle of January, 1942, War Cabinet approved Hamilton as the new location and the actual site was determined a few days later. Plans of the lay-out and buildings were ready and approved by the end of February. Work on site and buildings commenced immediately, and by June 22 construction was so far advanced that the transfer of the first section of the plant from Auckland took place. On June 24, two days later, and only five months after the selection of the site, the first lots of ammunition were turned out of the new factory. In all. we lost the equivalent of only one week's production due to the system adopted of transferring the plant section by section, operation by operation, as the new factory became ready." CAPACITY OF NEW PLANT, The decision taken had been more than justified. The rated capacity of the Hamilton factory was double that of the Auckland plant, This capacity had. however, been surpassed by the output which for the first 12 months of operation exceeded the estimate by more than 10 per cent. Production m the 12 months of 1940. was 17 million rounds whereas in the past 12 months 75 million rounds had been produced. This, too, was only part of the story, for the quality of the ammunition produced had been steadily improved till it had now reached "All Services" standards, which was the highest grade used by the services. Mr. Sullivan paid a high tribute to all those who had played a part in making possible this achievement, which he had no hesitation in saying would rank as one of the great industrial undertakings of the war in this country. "I wish," he' said, "to thank particularly the management of the Colonial Ammunition Co., Ltd., and officers of the Army Department, and the Munition Controller's office and the Hamilton builders associated in the scheme, all of whom by the exercise of technical skill and organising ability helped to complete this important task in record time with a negligible loss of vital production. "I extend to the employees engaged at the factory my admiration and appreciation of their loyal co-operation and unremitting efforts without which we could never have reached either the output or quality now being obtained."