JUNGLE SAWMILLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25660, 7 October 1944, Page 9

JUNGLE SAWMILLS

LOGGING ON GUADALCANAL HEAVY WORK IN THE TROPICS (R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service) GUADALCANAL Oct. 2. Two sawmills, manned exclusively by men of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, are now at work on Guadalcanal supplying timber not only for the many Dominion installations in the Solomons, but also for the United States Forces. One mill, established some 18 months ago, has been turning out an average of 50,000 feet a week of mahogany, rubberwood, teak, and a little rosewood for the past seven months, while the second, a new unit, has just' commenced production. The Japanese tank motors used earlier to supply power at the original mill have long since gone the way of the Japanese troops who once occupied Guadalcanar. They gave up the unequal struggle and were scrapped and replaced by a heavy marine motor. With the passing; of the months, civilisation has come to the island, and the original mill, installed under the greatest difficulties, has grown into a flourishing concern with an output that compares favourably with small mills in- New Zealand. The bushmen are now working .nearly six miles back in the jungle, having budlt their own access roads. Logs are hauled to the loading banks by tractors, and then brought by truck to the mill. So acute is the demand for timber that a sevenday week is frequently worked, with the saws turning , out a daily average in the vicinity of 8000 feet of timber. The work, both in the bush and at the mill, is particularly arduous, but there has been in recent months a marked improvement in the general health of the men, compared with conditions prevailing a year ago. Malaria control has now reached such a degree of perfection that, cases of this illness are a comparative rarity, and there lias been a sharp drop in the incidence of malaria among the mill hands. v.. '\y

Although the mills are self-contained units, and the men not only operate them, but also undertake all maintenance and repairs to the machinery, tractors, and' other transport, only a small proportion of the airmen are ex-perienced-mill workers. Some 80 per cent, had no previous experience of sawmilling, but practical work, under many difficulties, has welded teams which, in the opinion of those in charge, could hold their own anywhere. ' .

A direct, and originally, unexpected result of the activities of the Royal New Zealand Air Force sawmill units is that Hundreds of airmen in the forward area live in huts built of mahogany that would be a prize in New Zealand, and that many a wash-basin rests upon a rough bench of some exotic tropical wood, i Even ebony and rosewood are milled, and probably some of the most remarkable “bedroom spites ” in the world have been roughly nailed together in timber that, could it be brought to the Dominion, would cause interest among the finest craftsmen in the joinery trade.