The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY KORNING. GISBORNE, DEO. 16, 1905. THE MILLING INDUSTRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1628, 16 December 1905, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY KORNING. GISBORNE, DEO. 16, 1905. THE MILLING INDUSTRY.

The excitement of the political and no-liconso campaign has passed away. For three years the community will enjoy rest from strife which sometimes leads to bitterness. It is our duty now to return to the ordinary business of everyday life, and to put our shoulder to the wheel in helping forward the industries of this district. We would draw public attention to the advertisement of the East Coast Timber and Trading Company, Ltd., in which the company invites applications for the purchase of debentures. During the last few years several prosperous companies have been floated. The local freezing works, butter factories, building societies, and other associations that readily present themselves to view, attest the success which attends business enterprises managed by men of business. No branch of productive industry is so lamentably neglected in Poverty Bay as that which relates to the utilisation of timber. The local demand for timber and firewood is enormous ; the importations into Gisborne from other parts of the colony, increasing month by month, attain to llrnost incredible figures. Not less

than forty thousand pounds per annum is sent away from the town of Gisborne to other places in payment for timber of all sorts, while wo have within moderate distance of Gisborne vast forests of some of the finest timber in the world, The East Coast 'limber and Trading Co. has come into existence quietly. It has set about its work in a manner calculated to inspire confidence as to successful results. It has built the longest bridge in Poverty Bay, not only without asking for assistance from tire Government or the local bodies, but so completely without fuss that the gentlemen who went out a few weeks since to be present at its opening by the Hon. James Carroll were astonished at the strength and evident durability of the bridge itself, at the easiness of access to a long stretch of valuable bushes, at the perfection of the machinery in the mill, and also at the skill of the company’s employees in the performance of their work. The company is now, wo are informed, commencing a tramway from the mill to the Waikohu bridge, which will economise the cost of transfer of the timber from the mill to the Karaka railway station, and afford an easy means for the carriage of firewood from the bushes to the railway. The company own another series of bushes below the Karaka township, on the Waihora Creek. To exploit these, the company must build another bridge across the Waipaoa liiver, and lay a tramway from the Karaka railway station across this proposed bridge, and up the Waihora Creek. The tim~ ber fr.om the forests beyond the present mill will keep that mill hard at work for many years to come, while

tho troos from tlio Wailiora bushes will bo brought iu logs to town to bo cut at a very powerful mil), which tho company proposes to orect on tho Wailcauao. Tho mill at Tapuhilcitea is capable of cutting 70,000 foot per j week, it is iu perfect order, ami as tho bushos, which now lio beforo it, are composed lurgoly of first-class matai, tho results should bo very favorablo and profitable to all concerned. The directors’ names are nguarantoo for the able management and iutogrity of tho company. Tho titles and properties upon which tho debentures are to bo secured leave no reasonable doubt as to tho valuo of

the security offered, and as to tho certainty of the duo paymont of interest and repayment of tho capital. Wo do not look upon this undertaking merely as a profit-making venture, nor do wo think the public should rogard it solely in that light. The interest offered to tho debenture holders is large and tho bonus substantial, and as we have soon tho securities are ample, but beyond these inducements there are many reasons why all classes of tho community should assist in tho prosecution of this work. It is not improbable that tho company may extend its operations to a considerable | extent. In any case the carrying on of their business means employment of labor, tho utilisation of natural products at present waste, tho keeping of money in the district which otherwise would leave it, and possibly in the near future the giving of cargoes to the coal ships from Australia-all tending towards the cheapening of timber and firewood, of coal and gas. The directors, by offering abonus of a fully paid up share to every holder of a. five pound debenture, evidently desire to obtain the assistance and co operation of as many of the people of this district as possible. The great tracts of land between Tahora and Opotiki, and from the Motu down towards Ohira covered with priceless forests, can only be worked by some great company or companies having the goodwill and the assistance of the community Is it not possible that this company may, by natural growth and expansion, be tho means of tapping the great sources of woalth contained in the forests at and around the Motu, thus creating a vast industry, enabling the settlers to use their land to advantage, and staying the present outflow of capital, whilst bringing in from exportation to foreign markets still greater wealth to benefit all classes of this community ?