Flour mill for tourist venture?

Press, 9 March 1984, Page 4

Flour mill for tourist venture?

A wind and water powered flour mill and a centre to revive dying crafts may combine with a rabbit farm and factory in a new tourist venture on the outskirts of Christchurch.

Subject to a number of conditions not yet completed, the Paparua County Council will give Mr K. Plumstead planning permission for this proposal on a 3.2 ha site in Sparks Road.

Mr Plumstead, a stonemason and former technical school teacher who is now in the rabbit fur industry, said he had always been fascinated by mills and had promised himself that if he ever had enough time and money he would build one.

He plans to make a “good living” by fanning about 1000 rex fur rabbits, processing between 50 and 60 a

week, and will devote the rest of his time to building an 18m stone mill and establishing a centre for the preservation and teaching of dying crafts. Some of the skills he hoped to revive are natural stone-turning, gig-making, hot horse-shoeing, and the making of full-pull harnesses for Clydesdale horses, a breed which he said was becoming more popular. Mr Plumstead said he had some of these skills himself, but most of the craftsmen were now in their 70s and if the skills were not taught to young people now they would be gone for ever. He did not plan to make a large profit from the project but hoped it could generate enough money so that he could bring people with rare skills to New Zealand to pass on their knowledge.

He envisaged small bags of flour ground at his mill and Devonshire teas with scones made of this flour also being on sale at the centre.

Mr Plumstead plans to build the mill himself from South Island stone, using wind power in the winter and a water wheel in the summer.

He hopes to have his rabbit farm set up within the next three or four months, the crafts centre early next year, and the mill about October, 1985. Mr Plumstead believes his venture could be a quality tourist attraction similar to the Sign of the Takahe, and said he had received enthusiastic support from the South Island Promotion Association, the Government Tourist Bureau, and Christchurch’s main tour firms.