PAPER PULP MILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26639, 9 December 1947, Page 6

PAPER PULP MILL

ESTABLISHMENT NEAR ROTORUA

MUCH ACTIVITY PLANNED P.A. ROTORUA, Dec. 8.

Steps are being taken by the State departments concerned in their investigations of suitable sites for administration offices in the Murupara area as part of the Government proposal to develop the State forest reserves in that region with the establishment of a paper pulp mill. A town-planning survey will be undertaken shortly by the Lands and Survey Department, after which a concrete decision regarding housing and buildings can be made. Urgency has been accorded the survey, and it will be started in about four weeks.

Murupara is 42 miles from Rotorua, in the Whakatane County.

The pulp mill will be situated handy to the. Murupara township. It will be a 13-frame mill and will handle large quantities of pine timber from the Kaingaroa Forest. The problem of pumping effluent from the mill remains, and the present scheme envisages making some use of the Rangitaiki River. It is feared, however, that the effluent will have a detrimental effect on the water for a number of the farmers lower down who draw supplies from the river. Murupara will be the railhead of the line extending from Edgecumbe. As the route will be through extensive forest reserves, trains will be drawn by either Diesel or electric locomotives. Surveys on the railway are being carried out from Edgecumbe. , At Kaingaroa facilities to handle the timber are being augmented. A new mill was put into operation recently, and others are under construction. Linked so closely with the Murupapa mill projects to form part of one plan is a scheme to expand Edgecumbe. The Government is bringing to a close negotiations with a private landowner for the acquisition of about 30 acres, on which it is intended to build a State housing settlement. The construction of a large stopbank between Edgecumbe township and the Rangitaiki River, as a protection against flooding, is also envisaged.