Defence Construction - Staggering Figures

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, have a read of this from the Waikato Times dated 11th of April 1944. It is a real an eye opener... incredible in fact. We were a small country with only 1.5 million people, many of them in the fighting forces actually fighting a war, and on the back of the Great Depression, this puts into sharp contrast how absolutely pathetic the Kiwi Build effort has been.

DEFENCE WORKS

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT

BUILDINGS AND PLANT

(Special to Times) WELLINGTON, Monday

The magnitude of defence construction work undertaken by New Zealand since the outbreak of the war was revealed today by the Minister of Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in an interview. He said that sufficient timber and roofing material had been used to erect 20,450 houses. What this means may be better appreciated by stating the fact that to date the number of State rental houses erected is only 15,612.

Hospital accommodation has been built for New Zealand and Allied forces to provide a total of 12,253 beds. In addition, accommodation has been provided for some 11,500 staff, making a total hospital population of approximately 23,700, or more people than there are in the city of Palmerston North—the fifth largest city in New Zealand.

Construction During War
Mr Semple said that since the outbreak of war 260 new camps for defence posts had been constructed for the Army, 64 for the Navy, and 41 for the Air Force, making a total of 365 new establishments, apart altogether from extensions made to existing camps.

“Some camps to accommodate 5000 men,” said Mr Semple, “were ready for occupation within two months, and complete in every detail within six months from the receipt of the instructions to proceed. With the greater urgency as a result of Japan’s entry into the war, extensions at one camp to provide for the accommodation of 7000 additional men were provided in two months.

“Store buildings totalling 978 have been built, covering nearly 5½ million square feet, equivalent to 125 acres or equal in size to 30 of the biggest factories.

“In addition to the figures already mentioned, 39,000 other camp buildings have been erected to accommodate and mess New Zealand and Allied troops, covering an area of 12,121,000 square feet or 278 acres. Besides this, 7462 tent decks have been supplied.”

Building in Pacific
Defence construction work also extended to the Pacific, continued the Minister. A total of 1909 buildings had been prefabricated in New Zealand and sent forward for erection in the Pacific area.

Other striking figures were given by the Minister. He said that 56 miles of water supply mains had been laid; 44 miles of sewer drains had been dug; 81 miles of roading had been formed; 1,000,000 square yards of sealing had been carried out, and 500,000 feet of piles had been driven for the Navy. Wharves had also been constructed, one alone requiring 600,000 superficial feet of timber.

Referring to aerodrome construction, the Minister said there were 90 aerodromes or landing grounds in New Zealand, some of which (not including five aerodromes in the Pacific) were constructed during the war. The construction work covered 11,000 acres or 17 square miles. The total length of runways was 163 miles. If reduced to an 18ft. road the length would be 4400 miles—the distance from New Zealand to South America. There were concrete runways equivalent to 80 miles, while sealed and stabilised runways covered 220 miles of 18ft. roadway respectively. Aerodrome construction and maintenance, not including buildings, had cost over £4,500,000.

Plant Sent Overseas
The performance is even more creditable in the light of the public works personnel and plant sent overseas. This was mentioned by Mr Semple. He said that public works construction plant, including compressors, tractors, bulldozers, crushing plant, road graders and other earth-moving machinery, to the value of over £500,000, had been sent from the Dominion to various theatres of war. Machinery worth £140,000 sent to Singapore was lost as a result of enemy action. The bulk of the plant sent overseas was used for aerodrome construction.

Public works personnel specially selected for the work and two construction squadrons, comprising 16 officers and 132 other ranks each, were formed and sent overseas. The Works Department was also called upon to find personnel for railway construction and maintenance groups overseas. The total personnel of these groups was 40 officers and 1268 other ranks, most of whom were recruited from the Works Department.

[Naki.]

Yes but they wouldn't of gotten bogged down with RMA, Building Act and all the other red tape that slows the process down.

Should be fast tracking purpose built MIQ facilites though.

[Peter Lewis]

I read reports about the American Seabees constructing new Pacific Island airfields from scratch to operational in around five days - and often that was when they were still under enemy fire.
These days you'd be lucky to get an Environment Court hearing in five years.
We have whole industries devoted to stopping things happening.
Look at the hurdles being put in the way of the Sleepyhead development proposals in South Auckland right now.

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, the faceless bureaucrats in government who worked efficiently to ensure all these incredibly major projects happened swiftly and smoothly for all involved back then have all been replaced by government bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to slow down progress, put up blocks and try to milk as many fees out of a project as possible to ensure their pathetic existence continues.

The people who all worked together for the common effort in WWII truly were the Greatest Generation. Now we have so many splinter groups all wanting their own say, their own cut of the money and their own spin on the project's purpose, nothing gets done. I think this started in the mid-1980's and has spiralled ever since, and it's part of the reason this country's governance system now sucks so badly.

[30sqnatc]

Sept 19, 2021 19:17:15 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Yes, the faceless bureaucrats in government who worked efficiently to ensure all these incredibly major projects happened swiftly and smoothly for all involved back then have all been replaced by government bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to slow down progress, put up blocks and try to milk as many fees out of a project as possible to ensure their pathetic existence continues.

The people who all worked together for the common effort in WWII truly were the Greatest Generation. Now we have so many splinter groups all wanting their own say, their own cut of the money and their own spin on the project's purpose, nothing gets done. I think this started in the mid-1980's and has spiralled ever since, and it's part of the reason this country's governance system now sucks so badly.

To make these public works happen so quickly involved significant government borrowing and some paid huge levels of tax. Also construction standards were relaxed att he building was only designed to be temporary. For instance the timber used to construct much of Waiouru Military Camp was wet coming straight from the mill at Ongarue without any seasoning. It was being milled, cut in the mill and shipped by train immediately. After the war maintenance was a nightmare as buildings reportedly had no straight lines anywhere.

[Dave Homewood]

It is true thst many buildings wete only meant to last for the duration but most went well beyond that and many still stand today. Most don't leak as badly as a lot if modern buildings too!

The thing about govt borrowing back then was we actually had means of paying it back, and yes the tax was high but for good csuse and taxes were not wasted on frivilous nonsense like it is today.

[pjw4118]

Like the current Public health orders giving the Government complete unrestricted control , so did the Commissioner of Works back then . They had the absolute right to take control of any materials, equipment and vehicles and to manpower the employees with compensation being sorted out later. I assume that these orders are still available in emergencies today, but its hard to image them being used while the 20,000 bureaucrats in Wellington " have" conversations " about human rights and personal freedoms while another 5000 PR blobs provide reports , with some answer that could be expected in 1946 .
Just as well we were Governed by real people in those days other wise English would now be our third language.