THE DISTRICT’S RESOURCESS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 165, 5 July 1888, Page 2

THE DISTRICT’S RESOURCESS.

ONE OF THE MEANS BY WHICH THEY* ARE DEVELOPED. MR WILLIAM KING’S SAWMILL.

Things have now come to such a pais that any thing is to be welcomed that will enable us o increase our productive powers and give further employment to our surplus labor and recognising it as one of the industries that help us to farther that end, we took an opportunity of paying a visit of inspection to Mr W. King’s sawmill at Te Arai. Owing to the prejudice which the residents of the district have against using the material which is produced in the district there has not been sufficient trade to keep the timber industry in full swing, and the result is that only the one mill is now working in the place, but that mill alone is of much service to the district. Employment ia given to a large number of hands, who in turn are enabled to maintain themselves and their families in the district and of course the same process goes round, and storekeepers and others are enabled to do a larger trade. An industry that assists in accomplishing these things is deserving of every support and encouragement, and it is a pleasure to give the widest possible knowledge as to its existence. The proprietor of the Arai mill is one of that class who are an acquisition to the district—not men who sit down and bemoan the de. pression to which all have to submit to a more or less extent in these days. He is one of those who are always ” up and doing not afraid of hard work and always willing to benefit his fellow-men by his own laborious of those men who have grasped the meaning of the poet whan he wrote the linei— Still achieving, still pursuing, . Loarn to labor, and to wait.

The present is a peculiar period in tory of the timber industry of New It ia only a short time since we information as to the monopolising whole of the kauri timber trade in the’’NoffiP Island, by a syndicate formed in another colony. To us this appears to be an undertaking which does not bode well for the district directly interested. When what we might term ” foreign ” capitalists get such a hold on any industry, there is no judging the results which are likely to follow. The Auckland people generally regard th* new departure with a feeling of satisfaction, though we cannot sea how they can arrive at that view. Still, while avoiding a controversy on the point, we are inclined to think that th* re action in the trade will have a good effect in this district because with the increase which is certain to take place in the price of th* outside article the local prejudice againit local timber will be considerably modified when it is thus tested in a practical way. There 1* nothing of so much advantage tq any distriot as the development of its resources,—U it ha* got any, and no one can deny the value of our*. What applies in tho one direction is applicable all round, and were more attention devoted to the general principle of helping our. selves instead of importing, the district would be much in advance of its present standing. Building is not now progressing at anything like the rate it did in the old days but there is always something doing in this lino,'*qd tq those directly concerned we would urge th* consideration of the local manufacture ** against outside timber. THE MILB. The new mill is situate on the edge of the Pipiwhaka Bush, about nine miles from town, a good road leading up to within 80yds of it. There are about 25 hands employed in the mill and bush, besides a large number of horses and drays. The machinery used is a Cornish boiler of 40 horse power, driving a horizontal engine of 25 horse power, the fly wheel of which is about 18 feet in diameter, ths driving power being conveyed thence by a series of pulleys for the different saw f benches. Tho saw benches are all on th* travelling principle, thereby feeding th* saw as the cutting is done. On one of these benches a simple and most efficient device is in use for driving the travelling bench without the use of the overhead gear end pulleys. A drum about 20 inches in diameter is placed in journals below the belt which drives the saw pulley, and tho belt being drawn tight, works in the drum almost below the driving wheel, causing it to revolve and convey tha travelling motion to tho saw bench, which can be immediately raised or put in motion by the man attending the saw at the bench some distance therefrom. The device is a great labor savor, and h the joint produglhn of Mr Ring and his mill manager, Mr Gibbons, At a further and of the mill Mr Gibbons presides over the planing machine, Thia machine does some excellent work, planes and tongues and grooves at the same time ; it also has adjustable knives, for rusticating, mould, ing, beading, etc., so that any work of that class can be done cheaper and equally a* well as that of the best mills in the colony.

GENERAL REFLECTIONS. Mr King is practical in every step. At the mill you see him hard at work; the same when in the bush, and even in the purchase of his mill machinery he carried out that principle we should be glad to see practised by others. He patronised the colony's pro. ductions, the boiler having been made by Mr Yeoman, of Auckland, and the engine by Mr Masefield, of the same place. There ii to some extent a local prejudice against the use of kahakitea or white pine, and for no better reason, we think, than that adduced against other local productions, Many a house now 15 or IQ years since it was built of white pine, is as sound as on the day it was built, As in the case of other colonial products, the fashion is to deprecate New Zealand timbers, and there is no real ground for doing io — class for class, it compares favorably with® timbers of other places, when selected ; and this Mr King’s does. The and failures are not so much due to defect as to improper selection and of the relative qualities of the different Iv.'iflK Instead of using well-dried heart fran trees, felled at the proper season, »e put our Rouses wet sep from young trees that ar* felled when n?ost convenient; and often, too, when the tree is in its most juicy state, and, without a single enquiry as Io it* tqitahility, timber is constantly used in petition* for which it was never intended by nature. Me King i* deserving of the assistance and support of the district in his eaterprise. He ii the only man who ha* had) the courage to keep the mills going, and lis the means of disbursing a large sum of money among the working men, and if there w«e a few tfiote men'offils stamp in the aquntry wa would hear so much about depression. Mr King'* motto is flelf