SALVAGE FROM WAR

Evening Star, Issue 25742, 15 March 1946, Page 7

SALVAGE FROM WAR

BiG OPERATIONS IN PACIFIC STORY OF TWO HOSPITALS (Special.) WELLINGTON, March 15. When it was vitally necessary to push the threatening Japanese out of the Southern Pacific, the cost of everything urgently needed fay the fighting services was not so- important as giving them everything they required. Victory came unexpectedly early, and ' vast amounts of stores and buildings provided in advance for many months' campaigning suddenly became " sur-.-plus," to. use the military term. Salvage of everything possible from the waste.of war ; .at once became the predominant activity, with the result that the War Assets Realisation Board made sales of surplus stores and buildings from . the Pacific and the Dominion camps which produced, up till December 31 last, cash totalling £5,929,000. The" Pacific area has been a fruitful source of revenue from reclamation, and much'more cash is likely to come in as an offset to war expenses. When the 3rd Division came back, it brought all' its weapons and other fighting equipment. Then the Army, in conjunction with the Zealand Air Force, established, ..for salvage operations, a composite unit of 120 Army and 153 Air Force personnel to dismantle all buildings which could be economically brought back to New Zealand for disposal. Among the important items were the 4th New Zealand :General Hospital in Dunbea Valley, New Caledonia, containing 600 beds, and also the neighbouring Kalavere , Convalescent Hospital. These institu- ' tions were made up of a large number of buildings constructed from prefabricated parts prepared in New Zealand. ■This method,of quick building made it pSssible to reclaim, most of the material ',so that the buildings could be erected 'elsewhere. The 4th General Hospital >was sold to" the British Pacific Fleet, for re-erection at Manos, which was to be a big base for operations. Fortunately a hospital of that size never became necessary, nor did the British Pacific Fleet need the 300 tropical barracks rooms and a number of wareLouses which New Zealand had arrangeli to sell for removel from New •Caledonia. The Netherlands authorities wanted the Kalavere Convalescent Hospital and its equipment, and it was dismantled and shipped to Auckland on their account. Again, events moved too Ifast for the long-range planners, and this hospital is in Auckland awaiting disposal, though the Kalavere steam plant and laundry equipment is being stored in Wellington while negotiations proceed for its sale. 'The .laundry machinery and steam plant of the 4th General Hospital was carefully dismantled and shipped to Auckland, with likely purchasers competing for it. Some of the 1 prefabricated warehouses from the Pacific area are already being used in New Zealand as wool stores. " The composite unit which carried out a big programme of demolitions in the Pacific, and thus provided the Dominion with valuable building material, has now been reduced to a strength only sufficient to guard and maintain the unshipped materials. Building parts and ■ other saleable material stacked at Noumea, awaiting shipment to. New. Zealand, would provide-a full cargo- for' a Liberty ship. , . ,The Army has three troop salvage companies-in New Zealand, one operating in ea6h military district. This organisation has carried out some big dempUtibn : jbbs..-;such_ as the ; U.S.A. camps on the West Coast near Wellington, where 15,000 men were accommodated at the peak period of New Zealand's, role as an American base. ' '■■■-.-'