UTILISING FORESTS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12304, 19 April 1937, Page 3

UTILISING FORESTS

GOVERNMENT PLAN ESTABLISHMENT OF TWO MILLS IN ROTORUA DISTRICT Wellington, April IS. The utilisation of the Dominion’s forest products for posts, cases and general home building lies behind a leoent annoMicemem that the Government intends to erect two mills in the Rotorua district. Interviewed to-day the Commissioner of State Forests, the Hon. F. Langstone, said there was a very large quantity of boxes needed in New Zealand for internal requirements, and there were also other markets, such as the demand for fruit cases in the Cook Group and Samoa. Utilisation of Thinnings The extent to which milling would be developed depended on the state of the market. “What I have had in mind was a State forest service being prepared to utilise our forest products,” said the commissioner. “The forests in the Rotorua area are now reaching the stage when a lot of trees are ready for extraction. These should come out to he made into various products, such as fruit cases, boxes and requirements of that sort. It has taken a good deal of planning to establish a plant that would meet those requirements. A lot of the trees that have been used up to the present were plantings made hero, there and everywhere, and millers must have had trouble iu finding supplies to meet requirements. Perpetual Supply “At Rotorua there will be a perpetual supply of these classes of timber, and now that the forest is ready for operation it is necessary for the department to prepare plans accordingly,” said the Minister. Referring to posts for farmers’ requirements, he said that up to the present they had had to rely on durable timbers, such as totara and silver pine, but it had been known fot years that through creasoliug even softwood pines could he made very durable, and he was hoping to establish a creasote plant, possibly several, so that quite a lot of thinnings could be treated.