ROOFING TILES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 6

ROOFING TILES

HUGE PLANT AT TAUMARUNUI

What the industry of making roofing tiles means to New Zealand can best be gauged from the fact that the output of the plant at Taumarunui is just on one million tiles p?r annum, and this is not working the plant to its fullest capacity by any means. Yet this million tiles being produced j Q New Zealand means tens of thousands of pounds every year saved to the country.

The inception of the industry v«ts visited with difficulties. The Winstorie Tile Works were not immune from many initial trials, but thanks to capable managers and tho strength of the company, they were able to stand the strain. These years might properly be determined experimer tai manufacturing years, for out of tboni came the present product, a. rooiing tile acknowledged by architects and experts to be equal in colour and quality to the Old Country’s lest manufacture.

The Taumarunui plant has one great advantage—it is situated on the railway and in the geographical centre of the North Island, and thus it is possible to supply roofs for any districts fnm the North Cape to Wellington at a minimum transportation cost. It was not by chance that the works were built at Taumarunui. Careful analysis and tests of samples of clay from all over the North Island were made before a decision was arrived at, and the Taumarunui clay, in iiifxhaustible supply, stood the tests beU ter than any other.