Kaingaroa Development Wanted

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 15, 3 November 1950, Page 5

Kaingaroa Development Wanted

The Director of Forestry was of the opinion that the development of the Kaingaroa Forest should be undertaken immediately, stated the Works Department’s report to ; the Port Inquiry Committee. Such development should be on the scale envisaged in the original pulp paper and sawmill scheme. However, as proposals for development were not yet formulated, had been shown as increasing in equal stages of five, ten and 25 years to a maximum output of 85 million board feet green and dry exotic timber and 29,000 tons of pulp. The Director of Forestry did not support a harbour at Whakatane, as he considered the incentive of return freights to Tauranga was of greater value to the success of the export timber trade than any reduction of rail freight to Whakatane. In this connection another part of the report stated that while tha saving in the use of rail transport charges to Whakatane from Murupara was £160,000 a year against the freights to Tauranga, this was more than offset by the estimated £200,000 annual additional charges in connection with the Whakatane port. Extensive evidence which was subjected to a good deal of crossexamination by Judge Archer and Mr H. E. Barrowclough, counsel for the Auckland Harbour Board, was given regarding the estimates of the Director of Forestry of timber output and the prospects of the export trade.