PLANT STARTED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19900, 30 March 1939, Page 14

PLANT STARTED

WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS CARDBOARD PRODUCTS ENTERPRISE COMMENDED MR. TIULTQI’TST’S PRAISE (Per Press Association.) ROTORUA, this day. The culminating point oi' many months oi' construction and careful planning was reached yesterday when the turning of a button by Mr. G. Hultquist, M.P., set in motion the Whakatane Paper Mills’ new pulping mill at Whakatane. The plant is one of the most extensive and up-to-date in the Southern Hempishere, and when in full operation will employ 130 men with a wage bill of over £BOO a week. The mill is designed mainly to produce cardboard products. The main production unit is over 100yds. long, and is of Swedish manufacture, while a steam-driven power plant generates sufficient power to supply the needs of the whole of the Bay of Plenty. It drives two giant dynamos of British manufacture, and these will supply the whole, power for the extensive undertaking. Canadian Operatives The plant has been installed by Swedish and British experts, and a number of the most highly specialised processes are being directed by Canadian operatives skilled in this class of work. Raw material consists of waste paper, of which very large supplies are being obtained, and pinus insignis timber, which is being secured from extensive plantations owned by the company on Matakana Island, in Tauranga harbour. These trees are 12 years old, and it is estimated that the plantations on Matakana will supply the mill for a period of live years, at the end of which time further plantations owned by the company at Matahina will be ready for cutting. In performing the official opening ceremony, Mr. Hultquist paid a tribute to the courage and enterprise of the company, and particularly its managing director. Mr. IT. Horrocks, in promoting so extensive an undertaking. The company would bo employing New Zealand ■ “Lour and using New Zealand material fsr tlio production of a commodity which was at present being imported into the country. The company was carrying out the Government’s exhortation to expand New Zealand industry. it looked forward to the day when it would supply not only the whole ol the New Zealand market but also a large proportion of the Australian market as well.