Logging Scholarships.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 4, 1 December 1919, Page 672

Logging Scholarships.

By J. Butler, Managing Director Kauri Timber Co. Ltd.

In New. Zealand there is no industry that has received less attention by those who are responsible for the Technical education of our boys than 'sawmilling. There is no branch of sawmilling that has been more neglected than logging and yet there is no branch that offers more scope foir scientific application. •, \ : A knowledge of engineering in all its branches is now expected, of men who are entrusted to take charge of logging operations, but this knowledge is generally gained by personal experience which in most cases is punctuated with failures that would not have resulted had they been possessed of a proper scientific knowledge. 1 * . ■■ For successful modern logging technical training is (required' in the following subjects: Estimation of bush quantities and logging costs; surveying; civil engineering, including' dam-build-ing, railway building, water supplies,, etc.; mechanical engineering, including knowledge of all types of steam and oil engines, railway equipment and running, cableways, splicing and rigging of wire ropes and general mechanics; v all branches of hydraulics; actual logging costsorganisation' of bush crews; camp planning and sanitary arrangements. :

These are sufficient to show the necessity for technical training. In America logging colleges are established and well supported and logging here is perhaps more varied and difficult in its character than it is there, and if America can support a college surely New Zealand should be able to support one or two scholarships.

It is with this idea that I am' appealing to the Federation to take the matter up and make proper representations to the Government with the view of establishing one or two scholarships and so encourage students to take up logging as a technical occupation.