PAPER MILLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1939, Page 15

PAPER MILLS

OPENING CEREMONY

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

v ROTORUA, March 29. The culminating point in many months of construction and careful planning was reached today when the pressing of a button by Mr. A. G. Hultquist, M.P., set in motion the Vhakatane Paper Mills' new pulping mill in Whakatane. When in full operation the plant will employ 130 men with a wage bill of more than £800 a week.

The mill is designed mainly to produce cardboard products. The main production unit is more than 100 yards long and is of Swedish manufacture., The steam-driven power plant generates sufficient power to supply the needs of the whole of the Bay of Plenty. It drives two giant dynamos of British manufacture an t d these will supply the power for the extensive undertaking.

The plant has been installed by Swedish and British experts and a number of most highly specialised processes are being directed by Canadian operatives skilled in this class of work.

The raw material consists of waste paper, of which very large supplies are being obtained, and pinus insignis timber, which is being" secured from extensive plantations owned by the company on Matakana Island, in Taur^tnga Harbour. These trees are 12 years old, and it' is estimated that the plantations will supply the mill for five years, at the end of which further plantations owned by the company in Matahina will be re&dy for cutting.

Performing the official opening cefemony, Mr. Hultquist paid a tribute to the courage and enterprise of the company and particularly its managing; director, Mr. H. Horrocks, in promoting so extensive an undertaking. The company would be employing New Zealand labour and using New Zealand material for production of a commodity which was at present being imported. The company was carrying out the Government's exhortation to expand New Zealand industry. It looked forward to the day when it would supply not only the whole of the New Zealand market, but also a large proportion of the Australian market as well.