LOGGING AT TE WHAITI

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 3, 10 March 1947, Page 5

LOGGING AT TE WHAITI

GOVERNMENT FOREST SERVICE

VLSIT TO TIMBER AREA

Following receipt of communications from the Conservator of Forests members of the Whakatane County Council paid an official visit to the Te Whaiti logging area for the purpose of discussing road royalties and quantities disposed of to millers. The Conservator advised:—

1. The Service is definitely not liable for the £d per 100 board feet levy but sawmillers will presumably be liable for such levy.

2. The matter of the council’s road royalty is taken into account by the Service when fixing prices for logs ex Te Whaiti. 3. The Service is not liable for the 2d Te Whaiti-Murupara road levy.. While the council contributes up to £2OO for maintenance of this section of road the balance is provided by the Works Department so that the Crown contribution is ample without any further payments in the form of levies. The amount of Crown traffic is small compared with privately owned traffic. 4. Regarding the construction of road access for the mills located in the Minginui Valley, this matter could be discussed at Te Whaiti and the interested millers have been invited to have a representative at Te Whaiti on that day for this purpose. 5. There is no objection to supplying the council with a schedule of log quantities disposed of to millers monthly. Such return will, however, be in cubic feet as Service will have no record of the superficial feet production. The special committee appointed met Messrs. J. W. Syme and W. A. Turner of the Rotorua Forestry Department and Mr J. Lawn, Officer in Charge, Forestry Operations at Te Whaiti. The Forestry Department representatives explained that Mr Perham, Conservator of Forests, had been called to Gisborne and regretted his inability to attend. The committee made an inspection of the Te Whaiti forest area. Since operations were commenced at Te Whaiti about eight years ago, 600 acres of forest have been cut over and the committee was agreeably surprised at the young growth of forest tree seedlings, growing in the cut over area. In addition to this, two areas more recently cut over, of approximately 100 acres each, had been planted, one in Douglas, Fir and the'other in Pinus Insignis. The State Forest Service was not cutting timber from steep ridges and this section was taken to avoid any possibility of erosion. Furthermore, smaller trees were left in cut over areas, which assisted in the re-seed-ing of such areas.

The council at its February meeting decided that the Conservator of Forests be thanked for having made arrangements for Messrs. Syme, Turner and Lawn to conduct the committee on. its inspection of the cut over Te Whaiti area and be also advised that the committee was agreeably surprised, at the methods the Service is adopting in logging this forest.

ROAD ROYALTY CHARGES

WHAKATANE SAWMILLERS LOADING

The County Clerk reported that on the 24th December a letter had been directed to the Whakatane Sawmillers Ltd. advising them that the royalty would be 8d per 100 superficial feet on sawn timber and lOd per 100 on log timber and that vide the provisions of Section 28 of the Finance Act 1927 id per 100 superficial feet would be payable on all timber milled. In regard to this -id levy the Forestry Service had stated that such was payable by millers on timber purchased from the Crown. The council was obtaining an opinion on this matter and if the Forestry Department opinion was confirmed the Whakatane Sawmillers royalty would be increased by the id levy. Otherwise the conditions were the same as applied to other swamillers in the district. It was resolved that the Clerk’s letter be confirmed, plus Id royalty Te Whaiti-Murupara road, and Id royalty to cease when £2OO per annum has been collected from all the millers carting timber over the Te Whaiti-Murupara road—that the Transport Department be asked to have lodometers returned to the district as soon as possible so that carriers may be advised what their permitted load is. Post Royal, Te Whaiti: Resolved that post royalty of Id per post, 3d per strainer and Id per 10 battens be confirmed—that such royalty apply to posts from the Te Whaiti district.