TIMBER MILLING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 41, 18 February 1933, Page 6

TIMBER MILLING.

ATIAMURI PROJECT. MATAMATA COUNCIL'S ADVICE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) CAMBRIDGE, Friday. There is a timber milling project afoot in connection with a larjre area of bush at Atiainmi, and if suggestions made at the monthly meeting of the Matamata County Council to-day were brought to paw*, then much of the unemployment m the province would vanish. In fact, at is contended that there is enough timber milling scope in the area between iaupo and Putaruru to absorb all the unemployed in the North Island, were a coordinated scheme possible, and provided, of course, there was a market for the milled timber. To-day a deputation, including Messrs. W. G. Slaughter, provincial commissioner for unemployment, Mr. Noel Cole, of Auckland, and Mr. W. Cashmore, a miller, waited on the County Council in connection with a large area of bush at Atiamuri. Mr. Cole, who owne the bush, requested that the present fifth-class road to the property be improved to a fourthclass status, so that timber could be carted from the area all the year round. He said it was proposed to open up the area, to provide a mill capable, ot employing 300 men, apart from the extra labour required for road making and preliminary work. Mr. Slaughter intimated that Jus association with the deputation was solely in the interests o£ the unemployed labour. The deputation offered a certain subsidy and royalty on timber to open up and maintain the road, but it was the strong opinion of the council that it would be a better proposition for the party to endeavour to come to an arrangement with the Taupo Totara Timber Company to transport the timber down the company"s line. The council was also of the opinion that the subsidy and royalty offered would by no means; be sufficient to improve and maintain the road. Mr. K. S. Cox, a councillor, said that what was wanted was a co-ordinated scheme to provide for the linking up of all the timber interests in the area from Taupo to Putaruru. If the deputation could link up with the Taupo Timber Company, Perpetual Forests, Ltd., and the State Forest Service, each of which controls a vast ai-ea of forest and tree plantations in the area mentioned, and find a market, there would be enough employment for the whole of the unemployed in the North Island. It was decided that the council summarise the suggestions of a co-ordinated scheme in a recommendation to the Auckland Employment Commissioner, who will forward it to the Unemployment Board.