HASTINGS TIMBER AND JOINERY COMPANY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 242, 26 September 1922, Page 2

HASTINGS TIMBER AND JOINERY COMPANY.

AN ENTERPRISING FIRM. The Hastings Timber and Joinery Company, whose factory on the corner of Warren and Eastbourne streets was totally destroyed by fire about three months ago, has. like the Phoenix, arisen from its ashes and has now been reinstated in brick and concrete. When th© various departments are housed, and the valuable and complex machinery which was devastated in the outbreak, is replaced with the latest outputs from the best engineering shops, the enterprising firm will be in a position to execute promptly every commission entrusted to them. The progress made shows that the management has not let grass grow under their feet in getting the factory under way again. The new structure, without making any pretence to architectural display, is a solid businesslike building, equipped in every detail and suited in all respects to the requirements of the trade. The factory forms the greate* portion of th© Eastbourne street frontage of th© extensive yards, occupying about two acres, and bounded on three of its sides by Lyndon road. Warren street and Eastbourne street, and it presented a striking appearance as the adequate home of the firm’s industrial activities, when a reporter paid a visit on Saturday. The manager (Mr. Joseph Hiron), very courteously led the way through the various departments. Entering the planing room, measuring 80 x 33ft, one can scarcely make oneself heard for the buzzing of the saws. One thing was at once obvious—that every precaution has been taken to reduce the menace of fire to a minimum. The flooring throughout is of concrete, the walls of brick and there is no woodiwork visible, except the materials being dealt with by the busy plant consisting of the latest four-sider and three-sider machines. At the Eastbourne street end of the department stands the steam engine and boiler that provide the motor power. The boiler is set in 18-inch walls and the fires are fed from an enclosed concrete well, which is flooded with water every day at knock-off time. Every department in the factory fs fitted with suction fans, which draw up and carry the shavings through tubes to a brick receptacle, from which they are taken through an iron door and used for firing the boiler furnace. The joinery shop, measuring 100 x 55ft., has installed a variety of plant —a sash morticing machine, a chain morticer, a spindle machine for circular work, a McLean thicknessing machine, a buzzer and jointer for shooting the edges of doors and sashes absolutely true, a circular saw. with boring attachment, a Fay and Egan’s latest development of band saw and i McDowell and Son’s tenoning mai June. The outside shed, occupying a space ')0 x 16ft.. has saws fox preliminary t reatment of timber before it goes into the factory, and a swing saw as \\<l| as a firewood saw. Ihe premises are so designed that <ach department feeds the other easily nd smoothly and the work in every detail is put through with tradesmanlike completness and dispatch from the extensive yards, until the manufactures ar© turned out finished and > eady for delivery.