TASMAN PAPER MILL

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 10

TASMAN PAPER MILL

“TEETHING TROUBLE” WITH PLANT USE OF BOILER TO BE RESUMED TODAY (New Zeatana Press Association) ROTORUA, Aug. 11. The chemical recovery boiler at the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company’s mill at Kawerau is expected to be brought into use tomorrow after being shut down because of “teething troubles." While the boiler has been idle, all other operations in the mill, which has been producing its first shipment of chemical pulp, have, been suspended. However, troubles in starting up the complex plant had been much less than expected, said Mr L. S. Dougal, director of operations, today. Kawerau should be producing newsprint within weeks. “It is almost impossible for an integrated plant like this to be started without teething troubles,” he said. “The most difficult period is always the start, and we expected the troubles.” The Canadian manufacturers of the three-ton chipper had done a wonderful job, not only in rushing through the manufacture of a replacement for it, but also in redesigning it, said Mr Dougal. The chipper was in the Oronsay, and would reach Auckland on August 19. “if paper is made at Kawerau within a matter of weeks, it will not mean a sudden end to the large-scale employment of men there,” Mr Dougal said. “There is still an enormous amount to do—the sawmill, the finishing of the timber treatment plant, the chlorine plant, the wood preservation and timber drying plants, and all the finishing work on the plants already in production.” The Tasman company did not expect trouble in recruiting labour for the mill, he said. Many of the men on construction work had come to Kuwerau with the intention of staying there.