NEW INDUSTRY: TIMBER MILL AT QUEENSTOWN

Lake County Mail, Issue 33, 21 January 1948, Page 1

NEW INDUSTRY: TIMBER MILL AT QUEENSTOWN

Timber is the raw material for an infinite variety of consumers’ needs, from the houses we live in and the chairs we sit on to the paper on which this article is printed. Timber is now being milled at Queenstown! We are well aware of the present shortage and Queenstown could have no better industry than that which will directly assist in the building of homes in the district. The millers are to be congratulated on their decision to sell locally first, providing the Government and local bodies will grant building permits, but otherwise the timber will go to outside buyers. This enterprising industry, one of the first to be established at Queenstown, is being operated by five men —Mr C. Fowler, who has worked timber mills around Lake Taupo for the Fletcher Construction Company, Mr W. McLaren and son, G. McLaren, and Mr J. Hamilton and son, A. Hamilton. The mill started operation last Friday and promises a daily figure of 2000 feet of sawn timber. A 9 h.p. steam engine operates the machinery which reduces handling of timber to a minimum and operates the cutte»s. Co-ordination of workers is so com-

plete that in less than four minutes from when a log is unloaded it is sawn up and stacked to dry. At present local plantations are being cut and the manager of a prominent Southland timber company said that he had seen in these plantations timber as good as any in the country. There is timber for every purpose, building furniture, farm gates, etc., and the mill should be able to cater fully for local requirements.