For The Man On The Land

Waikato Independent, Volume XL, Issue 3667, 13 February 1940, Page 2

For The Man On The Land

' SOFT-WOOD MILL

ESTABLISHMENT AT PUTARURU FfiRST AFFORESTATION AREA TO BE MILLED The first project for the commercialising of the huge afforested Weas near Putaruru has been undertaken by Afforestation Ltd., who have built a mill two miles from Putaruru on the Rotorua line. The timber to be cut is all pinus insignus and will be used for cheese crates. The samples already cut have proved entirely . satisfactory, and it is expected that operations will be in full swing in the near future.

The mill is the first of its kind in the district and is built on a different principle from the mills handling native timber. It is a twostorey building and is similar in design to the Swedish log gang frame mill. The gang frame saw, docker and edger are on the upper floor, while the ground floor is occupied by the power unit, a Tangye diesel engine of 62 horse-power with necessary belts and countershafts. The foundation of the saw is of concrete, and is buried 11 feet underground. The gang frame weighs 17 tons and is 18 feet high, being fastened to the foundations with bolts 10 feet long and lir ins. thick. Little Handling With this type of mill the handling of the logs by man-power is dispensed with to a large degree, and there is very little waste, as the logs pass through one saw only. After the trees are felled they are hauled out by a tractor, cut into lengths and placed on a lorry, which dumps them on the skids below the mill. They are picked up by a logging chain and taken, to the upper floor of the mill, whei e all the cutting is done. They roll on to the log carriages and enter the log saw frame, which in one operation saws them into hoards of the required thickness. The boards, by use of a sidemoving device, are moved across to the docking machine and then through the edger, which handles 250 lineal feet per minute. From there they are picked up by a timber conveyor chain moving slowly enough to enable the yardmen to classify the timber and place it in the trolleys, which fake it to the drying racks. It is expected that the mill will be able to handle about 10,000 feet of timber in a day, and this may be increased by working a double shift. The slabs are carried to the end of the conveyer chain and dropped into a burning pit, into which the sawdust is sucked through pipes by means of a cyclone. After the timber has dried on the racks for about a month, it is loaded into trucks at the company’s siding and is ready to he picked up by a train. Area of Timber The company has 3000 acres 61 pinus iusignus of varying ages, 400 acres having been planted in 1021. and the remainder over the next few years. The trees in the 400acre block will be milled first, and they are of an average height of between 60 and 70 feet and from eight to nine inches in diameter. It has been estimated that if the frees did not grow in the intervening

time it would take about 25 years to work the area out. However, provision has been made for an adequate supply of timber for many years to come. As soon as an area of about a hundred acres has been cut a fire will be put through this area, and the millions of seeds which have dropped to the ground will immediately germinate, after which it will only be necessary to thin the trees out. Thus a huge sum in labour costs will be saved, as the same procedure will be followed throughout the whole plantation. Great Possibilities A few months ago a Swedish engineer from the State mill at Whakarewarewa inspected the mill and the forest, and he was greatly impressed with the possibilities of this type of milling in New Zealand. He said the trees were comparable in size with trees in den 60 to 70 years old. He prophesied a wonderful future for soft timber milling in this country. Demand for Timber Already there is a heavy demand for the timber from the mill, and the output for 12 months ahead has already been sold. Samples of the wood have been sent to Australia, and the timber merchants there are well satisfied with them. At the present time Australia imports all her soft woods from Canada, the Hemlock from there being very cheap. However, with a hardening in prices due to shipping costs and other causes since the outbreak of war, it is expected that Australia will shbr[]y be in a position to pay the company’s f.o.b. price. Future of Industry There is undoubtedly a wonderful future for soft wood milling in this country. At the present time Australia uses about 400 million feet a year, most of which at present comes from. Canada, while New Zealand uses about 30 million feet. Since New Zealand can grow the timber in about a quarter of the time that it can be grown in other countries there is no reason why she should not become the biggest supplier for the world markets. There are thousands of acres of undeveloped land in the country which could he put to profit by the growing of soft timber, especially as the land will never be any use as farming country.