BUSY SHIPYARDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23181, 29 October 1938, Page 15

BUSY SHIPYARDS

POSITION IN BRITAIN DEMAND FOR MACHINERY HIGH PRESSURE ACTIVITY I. Tho busy state of the British engineering and shipbuilding industries, apart altogether from rearmament orders, was referred to by Mr. A. S. Peacock, a manufacturer of steamship and Diesel engines in Melbourne, who was a through passenger by the Monterey yesterday. For some classes of machinery, he said, orders could not be executed for two and a-half years. Members of the British Association of Tool Manufacturers, who were doing very little munition work, were employed night and day to meet orders. Mr. Peacock was considerably impressed by the developments that had taken place in certain classes of machinery. Wonderful improvements were noted in turbine engines at the Glasgow Exhibition. There was exceptional activity in the shipyards in Great Britain, and he had not observed a vacant slipway on his tours through the Clydesidfe. Shops devoted to marine engines were working at pressure for mercantile marine orders. He inspected the Bulolo, the new Burns, Philp steamer for the Islands trade, and his admiration was excited by its exceptional equipment. He spent a week in the engine room of the liner Queen Elizabeth and, by comparison with the liner Queen Mary, improvements were evident that suggested that the first-named would be the speedier ship. Apart from the engines, there were other improvements in the Queen Elizabeth, notably in the accommodation in the tourist class.

Mr. Peacock paid a tribute to the great development effected in the American engineering industry, which was not so busy, however, as the British. Nor did the' Bta.to of the American shipbuilding industry conipare. He visited several major shipbuilding yards where slips were being prepared for orders that were to be lodged. His dominant impression ot America was that it suffering from labour troubles, and it was a new experience for him to see girl strikers parading the streets.