THE NAVAL BASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20465, 9 July 1936, Page 7

THE NAVAL BASE

IMPROVEMENTS CONTEMPLATED By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, July 8. With H.M.S. Leander arriving at the end of the year and possibility of H.M.S. Achilles being ordered to New Zealand when the Mediterranean situation is definitely clearer, the position at the Devonport naval base will be altered considerably. The Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones) mentioned to-day that the oil carrier Nucula had almost outlived her period of usefulness. When the new warships arrived it would not be necessary for them to be refuelled at sea. The new cruisers, he said, would carry sufficient oil for any special cruise and, therefore, it would not be necessary to have an oil carrier at their service, although it would be necessary to increase the oil storage occommodation so that any warship could be quicly refuelled at any time. Sites were at present under consideration in Auckland for erecting extra storage tanks, including the mud flat over the hill from the naval base whcih, if acquired, would have to be dewatered and a pipe line run to the base. The work at Kauri Point was being pushed ahead and it had been decided that a new training wharf should be erected to take the place of the present one at the base which was not in line with the dock. The cost would be shared between the Harbour Board and the Defence Department.