MODERN MACHINERY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 193, 17 July 1939, Page 2

MODERN MACHINERY

PARAPARAUMU DISPLAY. MINISTER’S ADDRESS. Shifting from 7000 to 8000 cubit yards an hour, four carryalls am three bulldozers made an ini press: v. sign t for several thousand people win attended the demonstration on Saturday of massed modern machinery a; the emergency landing ground whicl is being built at Paraparaumu. Tin demonstration was arranged by the .Minister of Public Works (Hon. R Semple) and there were present representatives of local bodies in tin Wellington and Aianawatu district:the Minister of Labour (Hon. P. C Webb), a number of Members o Parliament, and heads of the Army Niivv and Air denartments.

Emergency landing grounds in mod ern aviation, both for military ai t commercial purposes, represented th; safety valve, said Afr Semple, who wn. introduced hv the member for Ota hi. Air L. G. Lowry. Every country i: the world had been taught that lesso and had paid very dearly for it ii lives. The closer one could have th grounds the greater was the degro ol safety for the aviator and those In carried. The Paraparaumu groum would he a valuable contribution i the link of emergency landing ground throughout the country, not onlv lo commercial aviation, hut if needs lx for defence purposes. The total quantity of earth to hi shifted to build the aerodrome win 420,500 cubic yards, and to date 240. 000 yards had been excavated. Tlr. average weekly output was 54,00( yards, and the maximum weekly output- 63.000 yards. There were 24 me. carrying out the work. The estimated time to complete the construction was 10 weeks. The aerodrome covered a: area of 10.3 acres.

By manual methods it would have taken 300 men a year to build the aerodrome. A vast change had taken place in the world of invention, and it was true to say that people were now living in a mechanised and powerdriven age.

COST OF AA’ORKS. The AA'henuapai Aerodrome, outside Auckland, where the machines were being used at Paraparaumu came from, was one of the largest niil'tary aerodromes in New Zealand. There 1,100,000 yards had to he shifted. In the Ngahauranga Gorge 450,000 yards of rock had to he moved, and on the Paraparaumu Aerodrome the quantity involved was 430,000 yards. That represented a total of 1,930.000 yards. The AA'henuapai Aerodrome would cost .£81,700, the Ngahauranga Gorge £BO,OOO, and the Paraparaumu Aerodrome £25.000. That was a total of £186,900. If the works had been done by hand the costs would have been : AA'henuapai £272,000, Ngahauranga £225,000 and Paraparaumu £IOI,OOO. On these three jobs—all important to the development of New Zealand—the Government had saved New Zealand £411,000. A second factor. and all-important, was that the AA'henuapai Aerodrome would have taken four years to build, instead of less than 12 months, the Ngahauranga Gorge road four years ’.'stead ol less than nine months, and the Paraparaumu Aerodrome one year two months instead of about 10 weeks.

Air Semple said he was prepared to submit the figures he had quoted to any tribunal of engineers that Parliament or any one else liked to appoint and he would undertake to prove that on the three jobs his department had saved New Zealand £411,000 and given the services in less than 12 months, against eight and alialf years. t