PULP AND PAPER MAKING PLANT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25388, 10 January 1948, Page 6

PULP AND PAPER MAKING PLANT

STATE’S PLANS GIVEN BY MINISTER

REPORT TO BE MADE BY EXPERT

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, January 9. There had been several reports published recently on the Government s intuition to establish an extensive pulp and paper-making plant in the -Rotorua-Taupo area, said the Commissioner of State Forests (Mr C. FSkinner) to-day. These reports* had spared nothing in detail, and had far outstripped any concrete plans for the site of the mill, or the equipment which might be used. The Government had been consider-, ing establishing an industry to utilise the resources of the Kaingaroa State Forest, he said. Paper-making trials using New Zealand-grown msignis pine were satisfactory. Such a huge undertaking could not be entered into without an exhaustive preliminary investigation. The Government was trying to secure the services of an overseas consultant to prepare an independent report, on wnich future developments were largely dependent. It was unlikely that any decision would omade earlier than the latter half 01 this year. 1110 The site of a sawmill or sawnilD* was dependent entirely on the repon, taking into account road and rail access. Mr Skinner said. The PuW Works Department was making a »u - vey as a preliminary plan for P OB rail or good road access for exo * i . forests in the Rangitaiki valley, for 600,000,000 board feet* of indigenous timber in the western edge ot w Ur ewer a County.