Bill Walker, foreman of the beater room, has Pakehas as well as Maoris working for him. The chemicals and other constituents are mixed together. The mixture determines the quality of the board. board requires an enormous water supply. The Whakatane mills take 3,000,000 gallons daily from the Whakatane River. The pine trees are cut into 3 feet bolts, debarked and then fed into the grinders. These machines consist essentially of a large revolving carborundum stone against which the logs are forced under pressure in the presence of a stream of water. As the stone grinds the pulp from the log the stream of water carries it away. Exceptionally big motors, 1200 h.p. each, are required to drive each grinder. The groundwood pulp, which now has the appearance of porridge, is subsequently passed through screens and refiners prior to being pumped to the beater department. Here the mixture is made which decides the quality and properties of the board. Apart from the main constituents described above, various chemicals are introduced: rosin and alum for sizing and to prevent the penetration of moisture, starch for hardening and stiffening, clay for loading, wax emulsions for water proofing, and dye for colouring. After further refinement the mixture passes to the board machine. The fibres in the wood are now entirely disentangled. In the board machine the fibres are piled together, pressed and dried to form the final sheet.

Maoris Take Part in Production The mill employs 425 workers of whom 110 are Maoris. An executive officer at the mill, in conversation with Te Ao Hou correspondent, expressed the opinion that he considered his Maori workers to be of the same quality as the Pakeha workers. He made another statement which may interest those considering the setting up of industries in the smaller Maori centres. He said that the Maori worker at the Whakatane mills, who generally has his ancestral home in the district, does not tend to move around quite as much as the Pakeha worker. Various of the Maori workers have skilled and responsible jobs, some have become foremen. One Maori boy has been apprenticed to the mill's painting shop. The really important jobs in this industry, however, are filled by people who are paper and board experts. The mill is training cadets to be such experts. Of these cadets, two at present are Maoris and the mill is interested in getting more, as long as their school record is a good one. Cadets are placed in the sales department, to be trained in the selling work on which the mill ultimately depends, the programming of production, and the purchasing of raw materials. After a year they go to the laboratory where they are taught the routine