FOR BATTLE PRACTICE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 8

FOR BATTLE PRACTICE

NEW FLOATING TARGET HUGE RAFT BEING BUILT. I , (Special to “Chronicle.”) AUCKLAND, May 20. j At Freeman’s Bay reclamation there is being constructed a slip on which a maritime curiosity, for New Zealand waters, will soon be born. It will be a huge battle practice target for the New Zealand Naval Division’s firing practices in Hauraki Gulf. Built from the Admiralty’s latest design, it will have a length of 164 feet and a beam of 11 feet, dimensions .which will give it complete steadiness in the water. The raft will be constructed of 12-ineh by 12-inch timbers with a wooden deck and a steel bottom. but the actual target will be a lat- ( tire work firing screen 30 feet high. ■ But that is looking forward to Sep■tember or later. In the meantime 36 /huge piles have to be driven to form la foundation for the slip. The date of • the actual completion of the work de- > pends on how the materials, all of i which are to be imported, come to hand. The contractors hope to get a start on j the naval “straw man” in July, and in September it may be ship-shape and i ready for the water. Then it will slide off into the harbour waters and be towed round into the Gulf for the use of the warships’ guns.