MILL COMPLETED

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21035, 10 February 1940, Page 6

MILL COMPLETED

SITE NEAR PUTARURU MAKING OF CHEESE CRATES (Snoofal to T!mes> PUTARURU, Saturday. The completion of a mill two miles from Putaruru by Afforestation Limited is the first stage in the project for the commercialisation of the huge afforested areas between Rotorua, Taupo and Putaruru. The timber will be used for cheese crates, samples of which have proved most satisfactory. The company has 3000 acres of pinus of varying ages, a block of 400 acres, which is to be milled first, having been planted fifteen years ago. A Swedish engineer from the State mill at Rotorua visited the plant recently and was greatly impressed with the possibilities of this type of milling in New Zealand. He I said the trees 15 years of age were * comparable in size to trees in Sweden 60 years old.

Already there is a heavy demand for the timber, and the output for 12 months ahead has been sold. Australia at present imports 400.000.000 ft. of soft wood from Canada, and there is no reason why she should not take New Zealand’s output when this type of milling is developed in this country. As New Zealand can grow the soft timber in a quarter the time it can be grown in other countries, there is no reason why she should not become one of the largest suppliers of the world’s markets.