PRODUCTION STARTED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 75, 30 March 1939, Page 8

PRODUCTION STARTED

WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY l Per Press Association.! ROTORUA, March 29. The culminating point of many months’ construction and careful planning was reached to-day when the turning of a button by Mr. G. Hulquist, M.P., set in motion the Whaktane Raper Mill’s new pulping mill. The Whakatane plant is one of the most extensive and up-to-date in the . southern hemisphere and when in lull 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 100 yards long and is of Swedish manufacture, while the steam-driven power plant generates . sufficient power to supply the needs of the wnole of the Bay of Plenty. It drives two giant dynamos of British manufacture and these will supply the whole of the power for tnc extensive undertaking. The plant has been installed by Swedish and British experts and a number of most highly specialised pro- ■ cesses are being directed by Canadian operatives skilled in this class of work. The raw material consists of waste paper, ol 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 twelve years old and it is estimated that the plantations on Matakana will supply the mill, lor a period of five years, at the end which time further plantations owned by the company at Matahina will be ready for cutting. Performing the official opening ceremony, Mr. Hulquist paid a tribute to the courage and enterprise of the company and particularly its manag-ing-director, Mr. H. Horrocks, in promoting so extensive an undertaking. The company would be employing New Zealand labour and using New Zealand material for the 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 of the New Zealand market but also a large proportion of the Australian market as well.