ELEVEN EX-SERVICEMEN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 76, 22 January 1947, Page 5

ELEVEN EX-SERVICEMEN

TO ESTABLISH A SAWMILL Ten thousand superficial feet of timber a day is the target of eleven ex-servicemen who, as owners and operators, will begin running a timber mill at Te Whaiti next April. Thejr have so far been granted a loan of £7OOO by the Rehabilitation Board; consideration is now being given to increasing this amount to purchase additional equipment. With one exception Messrs. C. J. Merrylees, S. J., G., and A. R. Newland, J. R. C. Hargreaves, A. J. Church, J. R. Brannigan, W. J. McLean, J. and R. J. Hayes and A. H. De Lisle are all experienced timbermeh and they are building their own mill on the most modern lines. Into the 84 by 40ft. building will go the breaking down and breast benches which are at present being built in Wellington. So will the new diesel engine which the company has been fortunate to purchase. The construction throughout is that of a permanent mill, which is how the men thought it out when they first talked over the project in the front lines/

All the logging at Te Whaiti, a tiny settlement 56 miles from Rotorua and 64 from Whakatane, is done by the State Forest Service, which delivers the logs to the mills. There is sufficient rimu, totara, white pine and matai to give an assurance of 18 years’ cutting. Offers have already been made to buy the whole output of the mill for years ahead. The co-operative mill will be one of five planned by the State Forest Service to work the native bush at Te Whaiti, and the partners have called their company “Long Fern” after the lovely valley in which it is to be situated. By the time they have built the mill, they hope to receive eight pre-fabricated houses for the married men, who will then board the single ones. . Meanwhile they are camping. At first they thought of forming a village by themselves but now hope to live in the model village planned for the workers of all the districts’ mills. This will have a community hall, tennis courts and all the amenities of civilisation. If a co-operative store is opened in the village, it will have .their whole-hearted support, they say.

The men’s scheme did not come to fruition in a day but they now pay tributes to the Rehabilitation Department for not falling' in with their previous applications for a loan. The venture then proposed was proved to them to be uneconomic as the timber would be cut out in ten years, leaving them with heavily depreciated machinery on their hands.