New Zealand’s Defences

Northern Advocate, 1 October 1938, Page 11

New Zealand’s Defences

[Special to “Northern Advocate ”] INVERCARGILL, Friday.

In the course of an address at Lime .Hills, the Hon. F. Jones, Minister of Defence, stated that this year the Government is spending £3,080,000 in providing an up-to-date defence force for the Dominion. Supplies of Petrol. The supply of petrol to New Zealand was limited in quantity, he said. For the purposes of on emergency the Government must know what was going to happen if the supply was cut off. The authorities had worked out a system whereby the distribution of petrol could be rationed and controlled. The Government had pushed ahead with the reconstruction of the naval base, and there had been constructed in Auckland oil tanks to carry 12,000 tons of oil. Air Force, The Government had also purchased five Airspeed Oxfords and alsq 30 Wellington bombers, which would be flown to New Zealand next year by New Zealanders, who would be trained in England. There were now in the Dominion 29 Baffin aircraft, each of which could carry three-quarters’ of a ton of bombs, which could provide a second line of defence. The Government had spent £567,000 on the Air Force this year, compared with £29,000 in 1928, and had also assisted aero clubs. Operational stations would cost at least £500,000. Nothing To Boast About. Referring to defence matters in his speech at Dunedin, the Prime Minister said: “What we have done for defence is not a matter to boast about. It is just one of the things that it is necessary to do, especially at a time when the world seems to have taken leave of its senses,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, in his speech in the town hall last night. “And, by the way, I am pleased to say that the situation in Europe is better tonight than it was yesterday, or even today. If we don’t have to use our means of defence or fire a shot at anybody, I’ll say, ‘Thank God for that.’ ” Leading up to these remarks, Mr i Savage said that, while the Government had not travelled ns fast in the matter of defence as some of its opponents would like, it had travelled three times as fast as they had done during their terms of office. It had mechanised the territorial force and had created something in the way of an air force. Group-Captain the Hon. R. A, Cochrane had been in New Zealand for the past few years in charge of that work, and had done a thoroughly good job.