FORESTRY UNIT

Grey River Argus, 6 February 1941, Page 2

FORESTRY UNIT

Tributes to Work WORTHY RECORD PREDICTED. Messages from the New Zealand Forestry Unit stationed “somewhere in England,” were broadcast to the Dominion from London on Sunday and Tuesday nights. The messages were recorded by a member of the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation during a recent visit to the mills operated by the New Zealanders. The announcer said that the men were in one of the prettiest villages England had to offer. Many West Coasters were amongst those in the broadcast.

The Commanding officer in messages to the New Zealand timber industry, the State Forest Service and to his family, said the Dominion would be plea'sed to learn that his unit had topped the list for production by forestry units. When they were fully equipped, he felt that his men, of whom he was very proud, would put up a record which would be honoured, on their return to the Dominion. He was sure that the men of all the New Zealand companies would leave behind them a record at least something equal to the first Expeditionary Force. All the members of the unit who spoke said they found the work different from that in the Dominion. The timber in the Dominion was for the most part easier to work. In England they were cutting principally oak, beech, spruce and larch. The trees had to be cut close to the ground. One man said they had to burrow into the ground like rabbits to cut them. The logs were cut close to the head, avoiding all waste. The unskilled work in the New Zealanders’ camps is done by refu-

gee pioneers. '‘They all think the same way a's we do about that man Hitler,’’ said one New Zealander. There are also members of the Women’s Land Army with the unit. Six of them are English and one Canadian. The women’s work consists of measuring the logs as the trees are felled estimating the cubic content of each. “I think they are a fine bunch of men, and as for their work we cannot praise them too highly,” said the Canadian girl.