NOT MOBILISED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24203, 19 February 1942, Page 8

NOT MOBILISED

ENGINEEEING TKADE WAR PRODUCTION SCOPE SCATTERED PLANT IDLE

New Zealand's nar effort demands a much more comprehensive mobilisation of industrial power, particularly that of engineering. This is possible and all the armed services would benefit. In a number of directions initiative and ingenuity are being employed to defensive ends, but, nevertheless, valuable plant in the form of lathes, drills and precision machine tools, is scattered about the city and province, idle because of the lack of efficient, purposefil organisation that could bring it together ami put it to work. And in addition to plant, much skilled knowledge in this field possessed by men oi the older groups is not being employed because of the lack of opportunity.

Organise and Co-ordinate To organise, co-ordinate and spread the work should be an immediate task for the Government, in the opinion of men who understand the situation and are eager to help. Some time ago the Government was informed by a man with a Board of Trade marine engineer s certificate and industrial experience that he knew oi some 20 lathes and other precision tools—all virtually idle. He suggested that this plant be assembled and he offered his services at soldier's pay to bring the workshop into operation. His communication was acknowledged, posed 011 to another department, but not acted upon. ''The stress of the times and the obvious inability of other Allied countries to supply all our military needs at this time,'' said another engineer, "means that we must stand on our own feet more than ever in the past. And we cannot delay. Action is wanted, prompt decisive action. Long ago the Factory Controller issued an order forbidding 11 = to sell machine tools without authority. It is even illegal for anyone to sell a piece of tool steel without a permit. And there the so-called organisation rests." Red-tap Entanglements

This seems a notable example of bureaucracy becoming entangled in its own red tape. "From this kind of frustration that has bad no ultimate purpose," said the engineer, "we must escape if we are to go resolutely forward to the defence oi our country with the resources we have and can mobilise. The county' should be divided into engineering areas in each of which there should be a council of technical men who would make a survey of the plant available, examine the needs of the services, investigate the question of raw material and allocate the jobs within the capacity of the area."

A soldier of the last war recalled the manner in which Britain met its munitions problem. A relative who, besides helping to direct a very large plant in Derby was also an area organiser, took him on a day's tour embracing a dozen towns and villages in each of which small workshops were busy making parts of one thing or another. By spreading the work in this way over thousands of works, big and small, a colossal output was achieved.

Local Possibilities The same system is being followed in this war. A photograph produced by one engineer consulted showed a mass of turret lathes produced by a workshop normally engaged in the production of an entirely different class of machinery.

"Here in Auckland we could make mortars and mortar bomb cases," said another engineer. "We could make tommy guns, too. You would be astonished at the range of military equipment that could be produced if we organised our latent resources. "Material? What better materia! for a start than the thousands of broken car axles of Canadian vanadium steel. For the emergency, mild steel, casehardened in the proper manner, would serve. Think of the raw material available in boiler tuhes and old boiler plating for mortar barrels and bases! What about the stuff in brake drums and ballbearing ca«es!" As was indicated in a cablegram from England published on Wednesday, many men with engineering skill are misplaced in the British Army. A similar investigation in New Zealand would probably disclose sources of skilled labour sufficient to man the many small workshops waiting to be organised for vital war production.