Timber for Railway Department

Chronicle (Levin), 1 March 1948, Page 3

Timber for Railway Department

♦ • • ROTORUA, Feb." 2tT" Tlie third State sawinill in the Rotorua district is nearing completion at Mamaku. It is being built by the Railway Department and it is hoped to liave it in operation within three months. 'With an output ot nearly ■20,000 feet of sawn tiniber a day and 60 men on its pkyroll the mil will be one of the biggest in the district and one of the most up-to-date in.New Zealand. . Attractive honies for mill xyorkers and their families and a modern hostel for s'ingle men, all part of the mill scheme, will give the small desolate bush settlement of Mamaku a muchneeded boost..The mill will iiicrease the township's population by more ■ than 200. Unlike the two other State mills in the district, those at Whakarewarewa and Kaingaroa, which -are cutting exotic tiniber, the new- Mamaku plant will be milling purely native bush, Rimu, matai, totara and tawa from the high forested plateau of the Mamaku ranges south .of the township will be brought to the mill by a bush railway li miles long. As it will be the deptlrtment 's only sawmill in the whole of . New Zealand, the Mamaku mill will be kept busy supplying railway demands. Its saws will cut tht timber for , station buildings, bridges, engine sheds, waggons,^ carriages and almost every other wooden fitting used by the -Tailways. - • ■ '