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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 300, 21 August 1875, Page 3

The Maoris at Hawke's Bay having disdiscovered that Mr. Locke, a local lapidary, can cut greenstone into any required shape with what seems to them marvellous expedition, have unearthed many large blocks that have been in their possession for generations, and are collecting money to pay for the cost of cutting and polishing the stone. Reverting to the timber question, to which allusion has more than once been made recently, we (Weekly News) observe that the great importance of the trade is now beginning to dawn on the public mind. Last week we gave a few figures, showing the large quantity and value of timber produced in the Thames Peninsula during the past year, together with the large amount of capital invested in mill, and machinery, and the number of men employed in the work of cutting, driving, and sawing the logs. The figures we gave were a general approximation, very nearly exact, of the quantities and values of some fifteen or sixteen mills. As an individual example of what one establishment may do, in the direction of timber cutting, the manager of the Union Sash and Door Company mills, at Aratapu, in Northern Wairoa, sends us returns, showing the quantity of timber shipped from these saw-mills during the quarter ended 30th June last. No fewer than twenty vessels were freighted from this one establishment in the course of three months carrying an aggregate of 775,111 feet of timber.