WOODEN WALLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12063, 19 July 1917, Page 2

WOODEN WALLS.

"The Times," in its Engineering Supplement, that only in tho United States can the shipyards and the artisans be found who are capable, of carrying out a programme of wooden ocean-going construction. "In no other country in the world," say the writer, " could such a programme, bo contemplated seriously, simply because everywhere else the industry has developed far past, that stage. In Great Britain, it seems, there are few establishments that, could turn out a wooden thin of any commercial value." Enormous prices, says a writer in tho '"Yorkshire Post," are still being paid for ships. A British company, for instance, bought at San Francisco recently a steamer in course of construction for £-12,000, a sum more than double the contract price of the vessel. T also hear of a small barque that was saved from wreck, some two years ago, and brought into Monte Video. Tlio damage dono was so great that no offer to buy the shin at the time was received, but a few weeks ago she changed hands at £17.000. and, in addition, the buyers will make good the damage. It is also understood that several Xoi% tvegian firms that had steamers building in the United States have sold them at a profit of nearly three millions sterling.