MUNITIONS.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2788, 10 August 1915, Page 4

MUNITIONS.

THE NEW PORTFOLIO. - ORGANISATION OF NATIONAL EFFORT. The scope of the newly-created Ministry for Munitions and Supplies, filled by the Hon. A.'-M. Myers, has not yet been defined precisely. The matter will receive attention when the members of the National Cabinet meet . within :tne next few days. It is not ■ intended that; Mr Myers should be merely a Minister for Munitions in a I military sense. Much of his work probably will be well outside the domain of the Defence Department, though ■•■ h© will have relations with 'that department at some points/Hie '■ duty^-broadly speaking, will be to do on a small scale what Mr Lloyd George is doing in the Mother Couiitryv.With the difference that his efforts will be directed towards "supplies" rather than "munitions." . The Minister for Defence (the Hon. J. Allen) informed a New Zealand I -■ Times reporter that he had already j done.a. considerable amount of work in connection with munitions and supplies. He would be glad to hand over to the Hon. A. M. Myers the informa- : tionhe had collected and the plans " he had formed.: ."I have felt for sonic time that the Dominion, needs a Minis- : 'ter'to supervise indilstry in order that .we may secure maximum efficiency in this time of national stress," said Mr Allen. "The census of industry may have to be taken, and a Minister is required for that purpose. Then we shall need a census not only of the men who are fit for military service, but of the • men and women between certain .ages who may be fit for employment of some nature in tho important industries. The effort of the nation has to be organised if we are to secure the best results, and our need in this direction seems likely to increasfe as the war proceeds." "For example, ■we have a muni-; tions factory at Auckland," added the Defence Minister, "and I have had to r_efuse to allow certain men to enlist, since they are wanted at that factory. So with regard to our woollen mills,boot factories and tanneries, we may find it necessary to restrict recruiting. The time has come, I think, when the Dominion must be very cautious about sending away men engaged in industries that must bo keeping going at full speed during the period of this i war. We must not deprive oiirselves of skilled workers by sending too many"' of these men to the front. "j----"Then there is the agricultural industry. Production must not be hampered at any point. We must remember than flocks require to be tended and harvests won, .and that the main-' tenance of the primary industries aY the highest possible point of efficiency .■ is an important step towards victory' m the field. All these matters require to be thought out and provided for,and I presume that they will fall within the sphere of the.Minister for Munitions and Supplies."