TIMBER CONTRACT Mill Planned In Hawke’s Bay

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32392, 3 September 1970, Page 22

TIMBER CONTRACT Mill Planned In Hawke’s Bay

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 2.

An integrated refiner groundwood pulp mill and sawmill would be built by Garter Consolidated, Ltd, in Hawke’s Bay, the company’s chairman of directors (Mr K. C. A. Carter) said today.

The Government last night offered to the company 220 million cubic feet of the 320 million cubic feet of timber available from the Kaingaroa State forest. A start is to be made on the mill as soon as possible and all produce will be for export. The mill will cost sB.sm. Mr Carter said today that he was disappointed at the reduced volume of timber offered. But his company would be able to establish the new mill because of additional timber from local sources.

in a position to comment on the offer by the Government of a vast amount of timber from he Kaingaroa forest, the chairman of directors (Mr J. C. Fletcher) said from Auckland this morning. Mr Fletcher said company executives had not yet had the opportunity to discuss the Government’s offer. The export of much of the timber from the Kaingaroa forest contract through Napier would create dissatisfaction in Bay of Plenty, Mr C. A. Moore, the Tauranga County Council’s chairman, said today. “A very sad day for Bay of Plenty,” was the reaction of a Rotorua consulting engineer and city councillor, Mr D. L. Evans.

The company expects to expand the integrated mill in Hawke’s Bay as additional wood resources become available. The refining process is capable of using all raw materials, and the company envisages the use of all forest and sawmill residuals, including sawdust, within the economic range of the plant. Sawdust, chips and slabs of timber could De transported to the, mill from nearby mills for use in the process, he said. Mr Carter said an export market in Japan had been arranged and contracts signed would’ amount to s2som or s3oom, at a minimum. Carter Consolidated shares, after having risen 9c recently, jumped 21c to $1.60 on the Auckland Stock Exchange today, but eased to $1.55 later. N.Z. Forest Products dropped 5c to $4.03. The Tasman Pulp and Paper Company was not yet

Mr Evans, a member of the Forestry Development Conference’s forest industries working party, criticised the lack of persuasion by Bay of Plenty interests to have the timber retained in the region. A “very disappointed” chairman of the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board (Mr K. S. Calder) said he felt submissions made by the board favouring the processing of the timber in Bay of Plenty were right. He said the submissions had been based on known facts and the good of the nation generally. “We would prefer that from the point of New Zealand’s ability to compete on overseas markets, larger companies should be allowed to develop instead of the formation of splinter groups,” he said.