MAMAKU.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 207, 18 November 1896, Page 2

MAMAKU.

Mifcssfts Kt/sabs Bros. Saltmti/ls. (Concluded.) As Wfi outer tlie mill a huge log of rimti 24ft ions: by .'J.jft is being placed on the carriage beneath the big frame saw. II is there sawn up into flitches which by a hanrl process are slid on to the rack bench where a circular saw 1 etits fheirr into various .sizes. The outside piece's are carried along to where a swinging saw is at work which cuts them into lengths suitable for firewood. Between the frame saw and the rack bench is the breast bench with another circular saw used for various purposes, but chiefly in the making of shingles. A competent workmen will cut 1,000 per hou'r. We next visit the planing and moulding machines. The best of these is by Fay and is fitted with it four-sided head-cutter; the other, a two-sided one,- is by Green. Between these stands one of Matthew's drilling and morticing machines, and close at hand is a gulletting machine for sharpening the saws and knives of the planing machine's. The motive' power for the machinery is supplied by an engine of 2oh.p. nominal but working up to .'JOh.p; by A. and G. Price, Thames. Everything is driven by direct action from the main shaft. The engine is fitted with an ingenious contrivance known us Tangyo's gun-metal single-feed lubricator which regulates the admission of oil to the'steam pipe, and thus makes the steam' itself the lubricating medium and ensures a measured supply of oil to the interior working parts; There' is also a condenser which gives an additional oh.p. if required. The boiler is a Cornish loft by sft and the water enters at a temperature of SO* degrees. The engine' and machinery Ufa in first-class order tinder the careful supervision! of Mr Franz Erti. The water supply is derived from a swamp near the mill but. in case of emergency a tank of a capacity of .'50,000 gallon's has been constructed. It is popularly known as the " Engineer's Bath," on account of a cofliretemps which occurred during the marriage festivities of Mr C. Kusabs. Ar present 2j men are employed at Mamaku but as the Oliaupo mill is now being dismantled and the machinery brought here there will soon be upwards of 00 men engaged 1 . Employment is also given to many of the settlers in the neighborhood who are clearing their land and contracts for falling are also let to natives, at a certain rate per 100 ft log measurement. About CO natives are thus employed a!t present and these reside; with their families in no'atl}- built wharos a little distance off. After the inspection of the machinery an adjournment is made to the manager's office—which, by the way, is also the post and money order office of the settlement. Here from a stumpy black bottle bearing the innocent inscription " Lemonade" a libation is poured out to the deities who preside over sawmills, and a general chat ensues relevant to flie purpose of our visit. In response to our enquiries we find that Mamaku is rather hiVndieapped in tlie innrtnr r>f supplying the gold-fields with timber.The rate of carriage on timber to Paeroa is 3s per hundred feet yet strange to say ' kahikatea can he brought from Paeroa to Eotorua for Is 9'd per 100. This seems anomalous even bearing in mind that i kahikatea iff a lighter timber. Since our , visit the rate has been reduced to 2s 6d per 100,' but in the light of water carriage ' from Auc' land to Paeroa. being only Is per 100, a further reduction say to 2s is advisable in the interests of the Railway Department. In regard to the output of the mill wc are' informed that at present it amounts to about 3,000,000 feet per annum. It is estimated that there arc about 200,000,000 feet in the area leased,- • or, calculating on a yearly increasing output,- sufficient to last for 20 years. In the matter of roads the settlers here are badly situated. One road is at present under construction from tlie station towards Arahiwi about ~o chains but it will he of little advantage.- They want tlie road extended right to Arahiwi and thence to the Oxford-Turukenga road. That would enable the settlers to drive stock to market or bring it Ori to' their holdings. At present there' are no means of either loading or unloading such at Mamaku, and on that account many hundred acres of grass land are absolutely valueless. The cxigenices of space will not permit a description of the walk along one of the numerous wooden tram tracks to where the timber is being obtained. Tlie ring of the axe, or the more sonorous sound of the saw,- is heard us the virgin

bush is penetrated. By and by we'ag, proach to whore a gigantic rimu is bei.ia opewvtod upon, a stentorian voice hoarsely yells " Look out !" We hear a succession of cracks as ;ho men stand clear of dinger', the uj rY r 1" ■< swerve' arirl with? a foeavv si"-h,- as if n/ anguish, and a deafening roar*the' trunk crashes through the sm'aller timber and underarowth. Than all is silenno An proachiag the' fallen tree wo find' the saw oozing from' the trunk as red as blood Out ofthis tree about 10.000 feet of timber will be obtained. It measures close on 6ft through at the butt decreasing to about 4ft Gin 40ft up. It will be o-os* cut into logs of fro,,, 12 to 30ft "jacked " to the tramway, thence to the mill. The tram track, where it is ballasted with pon<*a or free fern and filled in with wood chips or shavings, is easy to walk on; where if i s not. so treated if. presents a few difficulties to those- whose early elusation in the way of tight rope iva king has becri neglected At various points attention is directed to several huge earthqiviko fissures ( f comparatively recent formation apparently. They descend to unkown depths and are " uncanny » to contemplate-. A bullock or a horse occasionally disappears into one of these. Sometimes the animal is retrieved—some ioies it io not. The visit to the? gloomy guUy which is habitat of the most lovely of all > T ew Zea Wales feather)—was reserved to the last A slight ram had coriimenced to fall but once in the bush there is shelter. It had not time to penetrate the dense mass of leafage overhead which completely shuts Here there is no consciousness "■ i">"»iu -jv. of aninsatiabls sawmill which will quicl-Iy denude these bushy dells .and shady avenues of all their loveliness. Nature's voice can alone be' heard for we' walk alon~, mostly in silence contemplating the luxuriant masses of vegetation, the great boles of the huge trees which shoot up straight as an arrow, down to the delicate arabesque work formed by the mosses and ferns which we are compelled to crush beneath our feet; This particular haunt of the tndeasu pe rld{iov~\i i s foun ,l ;„ various places) seems to be an extinct crater; It is rather difficult of access but the trouble is fully repaid by a glance' at these magnificent ferns. ' Neither sun nor wind can reach them and the absence of these seems to' fee indispensable to their growth. It j s with extreme difficulty that the plant can be reared away trom its mountain home. And so with this last and pleasant, recollection wC take leave of Matnaku and its surroundings for the present.