TIMBER FOREST TO BE CUT OUT

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 58, 2 December 1926, Page 3

TIMBER FOREST TO BE CUT OUT

FOURTEEN-MILE RAILWAY PLANNED ' Dominion Special. Auckland, December 1. Preparations are now well advanced for the construction of a railway from the East Coast line, at Edgecumbe, to open up a block of 15,000 acres fourteen miles to the eastward, containing an estimated quantity of 300 million feet of millable timber, -mostly best quality rimu. This timber laud is known as the Matahina Forest, and the owners, the Matahina Rimu Company, Ltd., Svnte, Ltd., of Hawera, and' Mr. R. 'W. Smith, of Raetilii, have formed the Matahina Tramways, Ltd., with the object of handling the whole of the cut timber. The railway line is to be of 3 feet 6 inches gauge, and already some 600 tons of rails are stacked at Edgecumbe station. Generally the country is of a nature- that presents no difficulties to the laying of the line, no cuttings or fillings of any magnitude being necessary, while the grades are easy. A tunnel of some length, however, will be required near the bush end of the line. A siding for handling timber freights has already been constructed at Edgecumbe station, and the three companies have secured mill sites at this point, the Matahina Company having a site of 25 acres adjoining the station. It is understood that Syme, Ltd., contemplate the erection of an up-to-date milling plant during the current vear. £he present intention is to have the greater part of the tramwav built by contract, and this work 'will give employment to a very large number of men during the next twelve months. It is estimated there' is sufficient timber in the forest to keep the three mills going for the next twenty years. Syme, Ltd., and Mr. Smith between them own 10,000 acres of the block, the remaining 5000 acres being the property of the Matahina Rimu Company.