DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 23 June 1943, Page 3

DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION

GREAT WORK DONE IN NEW ZEALAND FIGURES GIVEN BY MR SEMPLE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) Wellington, This Day. Figures showing the magnitude of construction works undertaken by New Zealand for the Navy, Army and Air Force and also for United States Forces since Japan came into the war. were given by the Minister of Works, Mr Semple, when he spoke in the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives last night. He said that 360.000.000 superficial feet of timber had been used, this quantity being sufficient to fill 75 Liberty ships to capacity. Stores, fortifications, oil tanks, magazines, observation posts, raid shelters, operational centres, camp buildings and hospitals had been constructed.

Giving further examples of the huge quantities of materials required, the Minister quoted 243 acres of fibrolite roofing, 551 acres of malthoid roofing, 50 acres of tiles, 2350 tons of bolts, washers and dog spikes, 316 acres of pinex board, 300 acres of plywood and 213 acres of wallboard. Altogether 3.421,558 square feet of storage had been built at an approximate cost of £3.012,000. This had all been built on railway sidings and was adaptable to post-war use. Placed end to end it ■ would take six hours to walk through the stores built. A further half a million square feet was projected during this period. Manpower in the field averaged 6000 men, compared with 26.000 men who would have been available for a similar programme in 1939 40. Dealing with aerodrome construction, Mr Semple said that 73 aerodromes had been completed. New Zealand had more military aerodromes capable of accommodating the biggest bombers than any j other country on a population basis. The I area covered by these aerodromes was I 9763 acres. There were 108 miles of allweather runways and 68 miles of con- | crete runways.

Mr Semple also gave figures showing ! additional hospital accommodation built in Auckland. He said it was sufficient for 4000 patients and was approximately four times the normal hos ; pital accommodation.