NEW STATE MILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 206, 30 August 1940, Page 5

NEW STATE MILL.

IN FULL OPERATION. WHAKAREWAREWA PLANT. ROTORUA, thie day. j With a proposed average output of 35,000 feet of timber a day, the hew j State mill at Whakarewarewa, oh the' outskirts of Rotorua, is in full operation.! Aβ a sawmilling enterprise it possesses) the most up-to-date plant of its type in the southern hemisphere; in fact, there is only one other mill eouth of the line comparable to it. This is at Mt. Burr, 300 mi!ee from Adelaide, where, for the past ten years, the South Australian ! Woods and Foreste Department has I been operating a similar type of I mill, although equipped with lighter j machinery.

In its design and equipment the Whaka mill is similar to the many up-to-date plants operating in Sweden. Much of ite plant hae been supplied by Swedish firms and the installation of its| equipment wae personally eupervised by Mr. C. A. Johannson, a Swedish expert with many years of Continental experience in the installation of eawmilling machinery. In many essentials the equipment of the mill is different from that of the ordinary New Zealand bush sawmill. Necessarily this is so, for it is designed to handle a very different type of timber—pinus species, together with a certain proportion of larch and eucalypts cut from the vast Whakarewarewa State Forest plantation. Plantation of 8000 Acres. Established a little over 30 years ago, this plantation now comprises 8000 planted acres and the rate of growth of the trees is euch that it is estimated the plantation will have re-established itself by natural growth by the time the last of the present millable timber is cut out. As a result the Whaka mill hae been established as a permanent plant and not on a temporary basis of the usual! bush sawmill, which is compelled to fol-l low the bush ae it cuts it out.

One hundred and fifty men, approximately, are employed at the mill and in the plantation. TJie majority of these are engaged in the actual logging operations and the mill activities, but a email number is still engaged in completing construction and installation work. The great majority of the men are married and are local residents.

The mill is considerably more than aj sawmill as the term is jrenerally under-] I stood in New Zealand. Within one self-] ,coiitained group, it also comprise* a> |creosoting plant capable of producing' llarge quantities of specially prepared; [telephone poles, fencing posts and! sleepers, a very larero hoxmnking plant! 'in which box "shook"' timber will be pro-| duced and sold ready for nailing up into! boxes, and an experimental station for thi) production of charcoal as a basis for producer gas. Associated with these units is a large kiln-drying section comprising four large bricked in kilns capable of an output of 100,000 feet of seasoned timber each week.

One of the features of the mill is its complete utilisation of all waste. At Whakarewarewa there will be none of the untidy accumulation of sawdust and ends of timber so often associated with the sawmill in Xew Zealand. All sawdust, ends and edgings are fed automatically into hoppers which reduce them into the proper formior fuel to be fed to the boilers firing the engines to drive the power-generating plant. The mill supplies all the power required for its various unite. Host Modern Machinery. The most modern machinery and equipment similarly reduces waste. The Swedish-designed long gang frame saws cut with the minimum of sawdust, and conveyor belts carry the timber and the sawn planks to various parts of the mill and through the various processes. Mechanical equipment of the latest type is also employed in the drying yards, where an "end lift" truck and a "straddle truck," enable large packs of sawn tim-! ber to be lifted and carried mechanically l with the minimum of manual labour.: These two pieces of equipment are both' of American design and consist of mobile motor vehicles fitted with lifting and apparatus which can be operated bv one man from the driver's seat.

In the plantations powerful tractors are used to dfag out the cut trees, which are then crosscut to the required length*

and transported by motor truck to the! mill. Here, on the long skids, they are cut again to shorter lengths and tumbled into a scries of long concrete wateri tilled channels leading up to the milL Walking alonj: the sides of the channefc I workmen with long hooked poles tori tho floating logs into their respective diameter classes and propel them towards the log intake, a moving chain i garnished with fearsome-looking spikes-! which carries the log up over a ramp! jiuto the cutting section of the mill. As jit leaves the water the log is 'to a thorough cleansing by means of a ' series of fine jet sprays which remove, I any abrasive material still clinging to, !the bark. Inside' the mill the progress !of the log to the saws and thence as |sawn timber and waste is largely automatic. The mill cuts logs of only one idiameter at a time in order to minimise the necessity for changing and adjusting Uaws.

The cut pi nibs timber, travelling oni conveyor belts, is subjected to bathing in' a special chemical preparation which prevents sap-stain, a handicap to which certain species of pine are liable. Interesting New Feature. I Another interesting feature of the millj and one entirely new to Xew Zealand is the provision of shadow sawing equipment. This consists of a series of taut li en lines run beneath a light above the sawbench and aligned with the saws in the log gang frame in front. The shadows indicate to the sawyer the exact position of his saws and enable him to handle the timber with the minimum of delay. Even to the layman the process, which is extensively used in the United States, is a-great time-saver.

In addition to the construction of the; mill, which occupied a little over a year, comfortable bungalow residences have: been built inside the plantation area for the accommodation of a number of married permanent officers at the mill, while ihostel accommodation for single employees is at present in the course of construction at the junction of the mill 'access road with the main RotoruaTaupo highway.

! The completion of the mill marks the ;first step in the plans for the utilisation of the great areas of State-owned forest. 1 of which the largest area in Xew Zealand centres upon Rotorua. In thati sense it » an undertaking of the greatest] interest and importance to Xew Zealand as a whole. •