MILLING INDUSTRY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 36, 11 October 1946, Page 8

MILLING INDUSTRY

MEETING TIMBER SHORTAGE

It was pleasing to note that in the previous 12 months 63 additional sawmills had been erected, and that should increase the output of timber considerably, for 40 of those mills were operating, said Mr W. Sullivan (National, Bay of Plenty), discussing the State Forests Account in the House of Representatives. He added that the State Forest Service could do more than it was doing to assist in the production of timber.

Mr Sullivan paid a tribute to the conduct of the Waipa mill near Rotorua. At one time, he said, he had heard severe criticism by sawmillers as to operations at that mill, but he spent a considerable time there in the previous 12 months and could say that the work reflected credit on the Director of Forestry. It w;as regrettable that the director had not seen fit to establish more of those small portable mills in order that more of the larger timber could be cut into sizes used for building purposes instead of confining operations to the smaller logs which were more or less used for box-making or cut into smaller sizes of timber. There was enormous scope for forestry development in the Dominion. Mr Sullivan said a forestry block should be established on the East Coast north of Gisborne. The Commissioner of State Forests (Mr Skinner): We are clearing a block just below Gisborne. The general impression among many people, Mr Sullivan said, was that New ZealandP had exported a lot of good building timber to Australia, but the report showed that not a great deal of such timber had been exported. Although less than 1,000,000 feet of useful building timber had been exported in 1945, an effort should be made to retain even that amount if possible. The Dominion was committed to exporting 12,000,000 feet a year, but the building timber should be retained and the quota made up with pinus insignis. If Australia was satisfied to take insignis pine it would mean a great saving of building timber. According to the report, roughly 10,000,000 feet of hardwood timber was obtained from Australia in the previous 12 months, and New Zealand sent to Australia something like 4,250,000 feet of timber and case timber.