OFF THE SLIPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22064, 10 September 1941, Page 8

OFF THE SLIPS

SECOND MINESWEEPER (P.A.) AUCKLAND. Sept. 9. A fortnight after the launching of the minesweeper Hinau. her sister ship Rimu was sent down the slipway today after being christened with a bottle of New Zealand wine by Mrs W. E. Parry, wife of Commodore W. E. Parry. Chief >f the Naval Staff. Like that of Hinau, it was a perfect launch, the stout steel and wooden vessel sliding slowly into the Waitemata, where she was picked up by a tug and towed to the fitting out basin. There was a sprig of rata at the bow. and as the ship gathered speed down the greased ways, the New Zealand Ensir i, the Union Jack, and the White Ensign were broken out aboard. "Tiere were cheers from the large crowd, while the National Anthem was played.

Commodore Parry congratulated all associated with the construction and launching of the ship. Referring to the fact that Auckland had a substantial shipbuilding industry in the past, he said that although steel had superseded wood there was no reason why larger ships of war, and also commercial vessels when the war was over, could not be built in the Dominion.

Quoting the case of Japan, he added that an absence of iron should not be a bar. as there was plenty available in Australia. He hoped that New Zealand firms would take adva tge of this opportunity.