LIFETIME IN ROOFING TILE INDUSTRY ENDS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29635, 4 October 1961, Page 9

LIFETIME IN ROOFING TILE INDUSTRY ENDS

Mr G. T. Guy. who is teecgntaed as having done snore than ary other man for the roofing tile industry in Meer Zealand, has retired after 40 year*’ service with! Petrous Industries, Ltd. He was manager of the Christ* church branch of the »ompany from 1961 until his retirement Mr Guy said yesterday that the making of concrete roofing tile* in Canterbury was started at* Paparua Prison. “It happened this way,’* be said. •'! was in the prison service at Lyttelton and was one of those who took the H f «fst prisoners from there to « Templeton when the transfer was made to Paparua Prison. We started to put up a building with concrete blocks and somebody suggested ' a concrete tile. We set up a concrete block machine and also • concrete tile machine. I was at Lyttelton for four er five years before going to Paparua in 1M«.” Basinee* In Panseel Mr Guy left th. pn7" service in IM9 and set up in business in Papanuf making concrete tile*. “That was in Igmar street though there were few houses about then. £, called my tiles Rayburn tdea, a combination of the Christian names of two wellknown citizens who financed the venture. - “Mter on some residents asked that the name of the be changed. They did not like the sound of it, and it was changed to Rayburn avenue. I had two or three men helping me. But I found it too tough. Architects just wouldn’t listen to an ? suggestion of using concrete roofing tiles. So I pulled up my root* and went to Dunedin, where four men had been trying to manufacture a concrete tile. I joined the Petrous Tile Company, ’’J 1 , then was, and stayed with it right through. About a year ago it became Petrous Industries, Ltd. “Since that day in 1921 I hava watched the tile industry grow. I went all over th*. South Island on tile business until I went into the efflee as branch manager in 1»L I had been a sort of free lance until then,” said Mr Guy. “In 1936 or 1937 the Government housing scheme began. Th* importing of roofing materials was restricted and we then started to manufacture tiles for the Government. We were not really able to supply enough. All the houses round here are roofed with our tiles,” said Mr Guy, who interrupted hi* gardening for the interview. “We got down to it to produce an electric machine to make tile* so that we

could meet the demand. We hammered away at the idea, and in IMS an electric machine making 1000 tiles an hour was made in Melbourne. We have one in IXmedin which serves the area from Invercargill to Timaru. and one in' Christchurch which serves the rest of the South Island. “Before the electric machines were introduced the tiles were made by handoperated machines. • Today a lot of these hand-operated plants have gone out of use. Since'then we've been selling lira tiles a year. That’s a lot at tiles.” Mr Guy said it now was difficult to give men full employment in the industry because of the over-importa-tion of roofing iron in the past. “We cannot keep the electric machine up to capacity,” he said. Some three years ago the manufacture of concrete flagstones was started. About 30.000 of them were used for foopaths at Wainoni, said Mr Guy.