A NEW LOCAL INDUSTRY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2350, 14 October 1881, Page 3

A NEW LOCAL INDUSTRY.

In view of their great importance to the progress of the colony as a whole, and this district in particular, it is only right that our industries should receive every encouragement and support. There has recently grown up amongst us an industry which, though yet only in its infancy, promises to attain to considerable proportions. The industry alluded to is the manufacture of sashes and doors. Up to a very recent date the Union Sash and Door Company of Auckland possessed an almost absolute monopoly, not alone of the Northern but tho Southern markets. Mr W. H. Hargreaves, who had taken over the business of the Victoria Steam Saw and Moulding Works, Lichfield street, having the machinery for doing the work on the premises, determined to compete with the Union Company in their specialities, viz., the manufacture of doors and sashes. So far in the production of an article fully equal, if nob superior, to the imported one, Mr Hargreaves, has succeeded admirably. He is also enabled to do what is of more importance to the development of the industry, viz., produce the article at the same price as it could be sold to the trade in Auckland. When the large amount of building which is daily going on it considered, and the consequent demand for sashes, doors, Ac., the amount of labor which would bo employed wore this industry supported as it should be must be considerable. It is, therefore, in the light of a progressiva step in our local manufactures that this industry must be regarded, and as such it ought to be so supported by the trade and the general public as to render it a success. The various machines which aroused to convert the timber from the log to the completed sash or door do not require description. There is one speciality, however, about the sashes, Ac., turned out at tho Victoria Mills which does need a word or two. By means of a most ingenious machine called a dovetailing machine, the sashes are rendered tar stronger than those made by the ordinary method. Even before they are pinioned and when simply clamped together, they are as it were perfectly solid, and there is no fear of giving way or shrinkage. The finish of the sashes in every particular, even to the minutest detail, is excellent, and the work turned out will boar comparison with any yet seen in this market. So also with the doors. These, too, are excellently made and most carsfully finished. The whole of them are finished by hand, so as to ensure a perfectly smooth surface for tho varnish, Ac. Indeed, the surface, prior to the varnish being applied, is as smooth as a piece of silk. Great care is exercised in the selection of the timber, Ac., which is stacked till perfectly dry and seasoned, and even when made up care is taken that tho sashes and doors have undergone a thorough drying process before being sent out. The present manufacturing capacity of the factory is 200 pairs sashes and 100 doors weekly. In addition to the manufacture of doors and sashes, which, as it were, has been added on to tho usual work of the factory as a special lino, mouldings of a large size, carvings, brackets, Ac., are turned out in a very creditable' manner. Attached to the factory is a paint shop and glaziers’ department, where the sashes are primed and glazed. Generally the industry is a very

promising one, and no doubt when it becomes more extensively known that we here can produce an article fully equal in quality to the imported one, and at a lower price, the latter will disappear from our market, and the local produce will take its place, a state of things which will result in the employment of an increased amount of labor and the development of our resources.