The last day of milling at the Waihaha Sawmilling Co. Ltd in Tihoi, New Zealand. ***Articles and booklet links below***.
The steampowered mill was founded in 1948 but soon switched to diesel power. Even the planer was powered by a diesel motor. Only single phase electricity was available at the site.
Up until 1979 the mill sawed native timber such as rimu, totara and matai. In 1979 native timber harvesting was stopped in the Pureora Forest by the government after intense lobbying by conservationists lead by the Native Forest Action Council.
The mill then cut the exotic species douglas fir a.k.a. oregon pine.
Articles about the mill and Tihoi area:
https://sites.google.com/view/waihaha...
The digitised Tihoi School and District 50th Jubilee 19411991 booklet is available at the Internet Archive (Archive.org):
https://archive.org/details/booktiho...
Contact: [email protected]