TARGET EXCEEDED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26816, 6 July 1948, Page 5

TARGET EXCEEDED

TIMBER PRODUCTION DRIVE OUTSTANDING FIGURES PA. WELLINGTON, July 5. Outstanding success attended the drive by New Zealand timber mills for a record production in 1947-48. Production is millions of feet more than the most optimistic hopes at the beginning of the year, and breaks the record by nearly 70,000.000 ft. Total production for the year was over 426,000,000 hoard feet, and to this figure must be added peeler log production and the unknown output of some mills. Announcing these figures to-day, the Commissioner of State Forests, Mr Skinner, said the magnificent' effort was a tribute to sawmillers and timber workers throughout the country. Wherever possible, the Minister said, the mills had worked extended hours, and in some cases production had actually increased with even less man power than before the war. “There is not a better example in New Zealand of what can be achieved by harmony, hard work, and co-opera-tion,” he said. “At the same time, this impressive total is in no small measure due to prudent war-time planning by the State Forest Service and the Timber Controller to meet the increased demand for timber which was expected in post-war years." There was also no doubt of the important part being played by the timber workers’ accommodation scheme, said the Minister. The provision of better housing and working conditions had proved an important factor in both attracting men into the industry and raising the annual average output figure to something like 70,000 ft per man. The major contribution to the North Island supply of exotic timber had come from the State sawmill near Rotorua, the production of which reached 16.780,000 board feet, or about 12 per cent, of the total exotic timber cut in the country. In one day the mill made a record output of 104,000 ft. “With the attainment of our postwar objective, urgent consideration ig being given to further expansion,” concluded Mr Skinner. “Attention may now be given to the increased export of timber, and ,to meet these requirements a new production target of 500,000.000 board feet by 1954 has been set.”