SHIPBUILDING

Grey River Argus, 13 December 1943, Page 4

SHIPBUILDING

Australia’s Strides

(Rec. 10.40.) BRISBANE, Dec. 12. The number of ships serving with the Australian Navy has increasedbv more than one hundred per cent, since the war started, said the Minister of Shipping, Hon. J. Beasley, speaking at a Queensland port, when he formally took over a newly-built nine thousand-ton cargo vessel. Australian-built corvettes, he said, were now being constructed at an average rate of three per month. In the past, added Mr. Beasley, three thousand ships, totalling about twelve million tons, had been repaired, maintained and dry-docked in Australia. This total did not include naval vessels.