Factories at War

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 99, 28 April 1941, Page 4

Factories at War

Some four and a-half centuries ago a nation of some millions of people was conquered by six score men. This Was Peru, a noble Andean civilisation in South America. And then, as now, it was equipment largely that won the victories. To-day this applies the nth. degree. The world war is, in essence, a war of factories. Exemplifying how this is so, an industrial expert in U.S.A. gave the case of machinegun ammunition. “It takes a 5-ton 19ft. multiple spindle bar machine 60 hours at work to turn out enough bullet cores to keep one machinegun firing for a single hour.” It was stated that it is “almost impossible to realise the volume of work that has to be donj in our factories to provide army and naval supplies.” When to the vast demand for munitions be added the work involved in construction of guns, tanks, planes and ships a prodigious industrial aggregate of effort is seen. Experience in this war has shown again and again that a nation’s military strength depends almost wholly upon industrial power. Hence from our viewpoint the accession of American support under the Lease-and-Lend Act is of decisive consequence. The world’s supreme industrial power has become our ally.

C&ildren’s Effort A ton of onions and two and a-half tons of carrots' were recently sent as a gift to Papakura camp by the children of the Paengaroa {School, Bay of Plenty, under a schorne for growingvegetables inaugurated by the headmaster, Mr. B. S. McDonald. Most of the schools in the Bay of Plenty have been using their grounds for a similar purpose, the idea having been adopted as a result of a suggestion from the Department of Agriculture. The Paengaroa school's produce was carried free to the railway by local farmers, most o£ .wires# children are pupils*

Skeleton Mystery No trace of the skeleton which was reported to havo been found last week on Great King Island, one of the Three Kings Group, off the northernmost portion of the North Island, was discovered by a party in charge of Constable H. H. Barrett, of Mangonui. The wrecked dinghy which was also reported was examined by the constable, but there were no indications of its ownership or origin. The skeleton was supposed to have been in a very inaccessible place, but a long search failed to find it. The skeleton was reported to be not complete nor iu one piece, the «kuU and p.their bunes being scattered.