FOREST WANTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 181, 2 July 1937, Page 8

FOREST WANTS.

AMERICA’S TIMBER INDUSTRY. The free screening of the film, replete with sound effects. “Californian Giants,” was witnessed by a large audience in the State yesterday afternoon, and it prßved not only entertaining but of definite educational value. The picture was presented under the auspices of Messrs H. C. Walker and Hobson, Ltd.. New Zealand representatives for the Redwood Export Co., and it gave, an interesting insight into the United States’s great lumber industry. It showed glimpses of a “million acres of redwood forests” and many of the scenes were of outstanding beauty. T-lie ruthless and relentless axe and saw were seen at work on these aptly named “Californian giants,” which had been growing, it was stated, “when the Egyptians were at work on the Pyramids.” Every phase of the industry, which, by the way, employs more labour, with the exception ot agriculture, than any other industry iif America, were depicted. The stout-hearted and iron-nerved lumbermen were seen felling these monBters of the forest, and the modern methods of handling the trees, some of them weighing 50 or 00 tons, must have amazed the audience. Here and there, by way of contrast, scenes of the old days were shown with the man-powered pit saw and the bullock wagon at work. In the modern mills there was shown an entire absence of the old “man-power. Human n< T encv it seemed, was merely required to shift a lever or press a but ; ton; the rest was done with —one could almost say with brain —of iron and steel. The machine age, it was very apparent, had even gripped America's hinterland. The value of redwood for building construction, bridge work, railway sleepers, posts, etc., avsis illiifitrfltecl in a very interesting way, the lasting qualities of the timber even when subjected to water, and its iron-like strength, being emphasised. The absence of knots due to the trunk lieing nlmost branchless was a particularly interesting point, as was its comparative immunity from fire. The by-products of the industry such as the making ot “firewood” from the sawdust and fireresisting packing From the .ark were other features of a striking film-