JOINERY FACTORY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 42, 13 November 1936, Page 15

JOINERY FACTORY

Government Housing Plan WORK AT KAIWARRA While Ideal bodies, building interests and the public are still discussing the advisability of the Government entering the house-building business in New Zealand, no time is being lost by those responsible in making preparation for the big building campaign of which the Government has already given an outline. The Government has arranged contracts with the Fletcher Construction Company for the erection of two large joinery factories, one at Penrose, Auckland, and the other at Kaiwarra, Wellington, which are to turn out the joinery requirements for the Government houses, and the erection of these factories is well forward. They are to be completed about the middle of January. That does not mean that they will be ready to operate by then, as they have to be equipped with all manner of machinery which, it is understood, was ordered some time ago and should be to hand early in the new year. There is one factor which may delay the completion of the joinery factories. That is the scarcity of timber suitable for use in such structures. It is an old story now to relate the causes of this. During the years of depression many of the sawmills in the country were forced to close down as there was little or no demand for supplies. That continued to be the case up till IS months ago. but such has been the demand during the last year throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion that the available stocks of matured building timber have been exhausted, and to-day there is practically a famine. As there is a heavy duty on timber from overseas, fostered by the sentiment that favours our own limited supplies, the timber is to be received “green” at the factories and there kiln-dried.

Some idea of the capacity of these two joinery works, which are being erected from the same plans, can be gathered from a description of the one now in course of erection on the Hutt Hoad, a little to the north of Kaiwarra and right opposite Kaiwarra Park. The factory building will extend for 328 feet along the Hutt Road between that thoroughfare aud the railway ramp, and its uniform depth will be 80 feet, beyond which will be a special railway siding. for loading and unloading right at the doors of the factory. The building will be of wood, on concrete foundations, with part concrete and part wooden doors. At the southern end space is provided for a green stack of timber and from that stack the timber will be fed iuto two brick-lined kilns which will be heated by steam provided by a boiler and furnace to be erected on the side of the kilns nearest the railway line. Thai, is advisable, as there must, necessarily be a metal smoke-stack, and the smoke might, in certain winds, prove offensive to motorists using the Hutt Hoad. With the prevailing northerly winds, however, this arrangement will mean that the smoke will be carried over the railway line, and so over the harbour. From the kilns, which will be kept going night and day, the timber will pass on to the dry stacks and from there to the saws and planers. All machinery will be driven electrically. Provision is being made for the factories to be equipped with the latest type of joinery machinery—pendulum and baud saws, mortisers, dowellers, sash and door cramps, teuoners, buzzers, and sanders. By the time the doors, windows, etc., are completed they will be near the doorway which opens on to the railway platform. This progressive idea of working is in accordance'with modern practice and should ensure the best results.

The factory is two-storied only in the centra] section. There oilices are to be provided for the staff in charge of the checking of production ami for the forwarding clerks. Between the State factory aud that of Ballinger Bros, there is a block of leasehold land of 20,000 square feet available as a factory site. Tt appears from this that it is inevitable that, the whole of this Government reclaimed land between Kaiwarra and the new overhead railway bridge will liecoine an industrial area which will not help in the contemplated beautifying of the railway ramp.