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The Taupo Totara Timber Company (TTT) was a well-known New Zealand timber, timber products, and building supplies company that operated between 1900 and 1972. The company was founded in 1900 by a group of business people led by E. Tudor Atkinson, and began marketing timber in 1905. The TTT also operated one of New Zealand's longest privately-owned railway lines, providing freight and mail services between Putāruru and Taupō, in the central North Island. The TTT was taken over by New Zealand Forest Products in 1972.

History

The Taupo Totara Timber Company was formed 1900 in Wellington, New Zealand, by a group of business people led by E. Tudor Atkinson. Its objective was to harvest and market timber from forests near the village of Mokai, 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of Taupō, in the North Island of New Zealand.

TTT Railway

Main article: Mokai_Tramway

In 1900, transportation in the Mokai area was limited to horse-drawn vehicles, with bullock teams providing heavy freight services. The TTT needed rail transport, and this necessitated the construction of a railway line between the sawmill and the nearest existing railhead: The NZ Government Railway at Putāruru.

TTT director and former Wellington and Manawatu Railway engineer and James Fulton designed an 82 kilometres (51 mi) contour railway to address the transportation problem. The line was built between 1903 and 1905 by John McLean & Sons. In addition to carrying timber from the TTT sawmill at Mokai, the TTT railway provided a mail, freight, and passenger service for communities between Putāruru and Taupō. The railway closed on 26 October 1944. The 19 miles (31 km) section from Putāruru to the "19-Mile Peg" was sold to the New Zealand Government Railways. The remainder was removed.

Trading

Following the completion of the TTT railway in November 1905, the company was able to begin marketing timber.

Text from "Brief History of TTT" with footnotes

"Build New Zealand's largest sawmillxxxii, two towns and an 84 kilometre railway to carry timber from one to the other." That was James Fulton's ambitious objective when he went to Atiamuri in mid 1903xxxiii.

Fulton was civil engineer for the TTT. With him were Murdoch McLean, the railway contractor, and Lewis Luxford, the TTT manager. Together, they overcame huge difficulties to build the company's railway and sawmill complex.

As McLean's gang of about 115 men worked on the railwayxxxiv, many of Luxford's 200-300xxxv men were busy erecting the permanent sawmills and other buildings at Mokai. The rest operated temporary sawmills at Mokai and Kopokorahixxxvi, or worked in the bush supplying logs for the mills.

In eighteen months the temporary sawmills produced over 4.5 million super feet of timberxxxvii. This was an enormous amount by the standards of the day, but barely half the annual capacity of the TTT's first production sawmill, "Mokai Number Onexxxviii."

As horse-drawn wagons transported timber for sleepers, rails, and bridges, from the temporary sawmills to the railhead, the railway crept inexorably across the wild, broken landscape. Mokai was transformed from a tiny frontier kainga into a small town as single men's huts, family houses, cookhouse, and sawmill rose from the tussockxxxix.

At Ongaroto, they bridged the turbulent Waikato river twice! There was no way to build "staging", or scaffolding, across the river, so instead they built a light suspension bridge. This allowed light traffic to cross the river, as well as providing a platform upon which to assemble the railway bridge itselfxl.

Fulton originally planned to build a two-span timber girder bridge, supported by a pier in the middle of the riverxli. However, when he saw the raging torrent that was the Waikato river, he realised that the risk of the central pier being washed away in a flood made this inadvisablexlii. Instead, he designed a magnificent timber arch bridge, which swept across the river in one graceful span. Reputed to be the longest of its type in the worldxliii; each of its four arch timbers were laminated from 7 heavy layers of totara bolted togetherxliv.

When the steel rails arrived in early 1905xlv, McLean's construction gang began converting the line from wooden to steel rails. In mid 1905, the railway, still partly laid in wooden rails, was open for businessxlvi. Timber from Mokai began to pour into the TTT's Putaruru timber yard, and then onto the Government railway on its way to the Auckland Veneer and Timber Company at Onehungaxlvii.

In 1903 Putaruru had consisted of three houses, a hotel, boarding-house and store, and a government railway stationxlviii. Two years later, it had become a key part of one of the New Zealand's most extensive timber operations. The whistle stop would soon become a real town. Crunch Too much timber, too few customers. That was the situation that greeted the Taupo Totara Timber Company when it began marketing its totara and matai in 1905.

From the Mokai sawmills, TTT timber was railed to the Auckland Veneer & Timber Company's yard at Onehungaxlix. Founded by Tudor Atkinson and James Fultonl, the latter company's job was to market timber for the TTT.

With no rail connection between Auckland and Wellington, much of the TTT timber went to Wellington on coastal ships. Unfortunately, several other sawmills began sending totara and matai into Wellington, also through Aucklandli. The Wellington timber market quickly became a war zone, as millers slashed prices in an attempt to squeeze their competitors out of the marketlii. In its first two years of operation, the TTT took heavy lossesliii.

To compound the problems, the short term loans and debentures that had financed the mill and railway were due to be repaid, but the company had no money to meet these commitmentsliv.

Frederick Dalziell, the TTT chairman, persuaded the lenders to accept new “A” shares and longer term debentures instead of cashlv, allowing the company to trade its way out of difficulties. The lenders, most of them also shareholders, knew they had a better chance of recovering their money if the TTT stayed in business. Meanwhile, Tudor Atkinson resigned as director and general manager, with Herman Coupelvi taking over as general manager.

In Wellington, they had been competing on relatively equal terms, but this was about to change. The North Island Main Trunk railway was due to open in late 1908lvii, giving a direct rail connection between sawmills in the    King Country and Wellington. TTT timber had to go through Hamilton, and freight on this timber would be much more expensive than that on King Country timber. In Auckland, however, freight costs for TTT timber would be similar to that on King Country timber, and they would be able to compete.

Coupe abandoned the Wellington market to concentrate on Aucklandlviii. The crisis had been fatal for Auckland Veneer & Timber Company, and to fill the gap he set up a timber yard at Newmarket to market the timber.

These changes halved the TTT's timber sales, and the Mokai mill complex, which had originally run two shifts per daylix, cut back to a single shift. The    work-force dropped from 230 people to 160lx! The shock rippled through Mokai like a tidal wave as almost half of its population suddenly found themselves out of work.

Coupe faced an enormous challenge. The company's mills were designed for economical working on two shifts per day. Cutting production in half would not halve the overhead costs, and it would be difficult to run the mills profitably. The railway was in a similar position. Yet in a short period, under Coupe's management the TTT was trading at a profitlxi and Mokai's future looked bright.

By 1910 Mokai had become a proper town, complete with school (albeit a temporary one), shops, saloonlxii, and sly groggers.

As logging cleared the forest around Mokai, some of the residents began to run cattlelxiii. Gardens graced many of the little TTT houses, with their unpainted totara weatherboards and iron roofs. The village green was used for several sports, and opportunities for hunting and fishing aboundedlxiv.

At the other end of the TTT railway, Putaruru was also thriving. Here, the company had its headquarters, a planing mill and a large storage yard. The opening of the railway had coincided with the ballot for the "Selwyn Settlement"lxv that included farms, grazing runs, and village allotments in both Putaruru and Lichfield to the south. By 1912 the town had several stores, a church, school, hall and post office. TTT timber, and supplies for the newly arrived settlers, made Putaruru railway station one of the North Island's more significant freight stationslxvi.

The TTT progressively upgraded its railway equipment. In 1912lxvii, a new British built "Barclay" locomotive replaced an ageing ex-NZR locomotive. The long awaited "Mallet" number 7 arrived in 1914lxviii. For the next 30 years, this machine, known as "the flyer", could be seen hauling trains between Putaruru and Kopokorahi (34 km south of Putaruru). (The flyer now runs on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway, south of Auckland.)

The railway was a vital asset for the growing community. Besides providing    Putaruru with a major source of wealth, it carried goodslxix and maillxx to the farms and fledgling towns along the line. The company regularly lent its train for picnics and social outings involving the whole community. Mokai's annual sports day became a popular event on the social agenda, with Putaruru folk riding the train down to Mokai for the festivitieslxxi.

Although it was now trading profitably, the TTT's investors still faced a grim picture. The company had never paid a dividend, its shares were worthlesslxxii, and it was still heavily in debt. In 1915, the chairman, Frederick Dalziell,    reconstructed the business to "clear the decks" financially. He wound up the original companieslxxiii, transferring the business to a new company, which retained the name of "Taupo Totara Timber Company Limited". Dalziell re-valued the ordinary and preference shares to 6d. each, one fortieth of their original valuelxxiv. The long suffering investors would have to wait for their money.

World War I attracted many adventure-seeking young men away from Mokai, causing a labour shortage that was followed by cost increases. After the war, the great flu epidemic decimated Mokailxxv and the surrounding districts. To avoid the flu epidemic, many of the Maori people around Mokai isolated themselves in the village of Kakaholxxvi, leaving Mokai almost deserted.

1920s

Record profits in 1920lxxvii vindicated Herman Coupe's management. The Taupo Totara Timber Company directors were so optimistic that they authorised Coupe to order two new locomotives for the TTT railway. From Mokai to Kopokorahi the gleaming black "Heislers"lxxviii could haul heavier trains than their older sisters, two smaller Heislers built in 1903. The little Heislers continued to serve the company hauling logs from the forests to the sawmills.

The Mokai Medical Club had acquired an ambulancelxxix to carry the occasional accident victim to the nearest hospital at Rotorua. The journey to Rotorua was a major ordeal in those days, and it was said that if you survived long enough to reach the hospital, you would be OKlxxx.

Mokai acquired a permanent school in 1924. For a short time, there were even two billiard halls, although intense competition between their owners soon forced one out of businesslxxxi. Fred Andrews, the victor in this    battle, had been involved with the TTT right from the start, accompanying both Tudor Atkinsonlxxxii and James Fultonlxxxiii on their early excursions to Mokai. By the 1920s, he was a leading figure in the small town, respected by the whole communitylxxxiv.

As Coupe and his work-force went about the business of converting trees into money, the TTT chairman renewed his efforts to deal with the railway. Before the war, Frederick Dalziell had obtained authority to extend the railway into Taupolxxxv. With a history of enormous losses, the company had no hope of financing such an undertaking, but on the other hand, Taupo needed a railway. The extended TTT line would provide this connection for a small fraction of the cost of a new, heavier, government railway linelxxxvi. Dalziell's attempts convert the railway from a private liability to a public asset triggered a nation-wide debate between various groups with vested interests in the Taupo railway. A special board was set up in 1923lxxxvii, only to be wound up two years later amid accusations of foul play. Although Dalziell continued his attempts to sell the railway, he never succeeded and the    shareholders had to wait until the 1950s to see the company recover the losses it had made in its early yearslxxxviii.

The optimism of the early 1920s was short lived, however. By the mid 1920s, cheap imported timber was flooding into the Auckland marketlxxxix, and local timber companies were beginning to founderxc. Then, early one morning in late 1928, the people of Mokai awoke to a terrifying sight. The number one sawmill was ablazexci! Working together to form a bucket brigade, the community saved the number two millxcii, but number one mill was completely destroyed.

The valiant people of Mokai rose to this new challenge, keeping the TTT’s markets supplied with timber from number two mill, while a replacement for number one was being planned and built. For Mokai, this was "business as usual".

Depression

The Taupo Totara Timber Company's wood burning locomotives emitted a continual stream of burning embers from their exhausts. As they crossed the Ongaroto bridge their exhaust, blasting through the wooden bracing, threatened to destroy this vital link. In dry weather, one of the bridge-keeper's jobs was to hose down the bridge before each train, reducing the fire riskxciii. As the train crawled at walking speedxciv, the bridge adjusted to the load with a symphony of creaks and groans. After the train had crossed, the bridge slowly released the pressure with more creaking and groaning as it did soxcv.

With its new Heisler locomotives, the TTT began to run heavier trains, raising concern about the bridge's safety. Coupe asked civil engineer Stanley Jones to inspect the bridge. Jones reported that although the bridge's design was adequate for the increased load, the main arches were decaying, and he recommended replacing the bridgexcvi.

To avoid a tragedy, the company banned anyone from riding across the bridge. Instead, everyone had to get off when the train arrived at the bridge. After the fireman had walked across, the driver would send the train slowly on its way, hopping off to wait with the others. At the other side, the fireman would get on and stop the trainxcvii. After walking across the bridge, everyone got back on the train to continue the journey!

By 1929 the TTT faced the cost of replacing its Waikato river bridge at Ongaroto, and the number one Mokai sawmill. Profits had been falling since 1925xcviii, and the depression of the 1930s should have swept the company before it. However Herman Coupe was not ready to abandon the people whose efforts had carried the company through so much adversity. Instead of reducing staff, he shortened working weeks, lowering the rental on company houses to offset the reduced wagesxcix.

The new Ongaroto bridge opened in 1931c. Then, in 1934, with its original forests becoming depleted, the TTT bought the magnificent "Tauri-Tutukau" forestci. Against all odds the company survived the depression in a healthy condition.

During World War II the Mokai sawmills worked at peak capacity producing timber for war needscii. The TTT trains were larger than ever, hauling timber from Mokai and other sawmills along the line. With petrol and tyres rationed, the trains helped the war effort by avoiding road transport. Although the war meant high taxationciii, Mokai was bustling.

The end of the war was also the end of an era for Mokai. The company    moved its sawmill to Maroa to mill the Tauri-Tutukau forest, using road transport. For a few years the TTT trains ran between Putaruru and the “19-mile peg”, just south of Tokoroa, until the government railway to Kinleith opened in the early 1950sciv. Sawmilling continued at Mokai, but on a much smaller scale.

1945-72 text from "Men of Pluck"

During the war, a government official known as the "Timber Controller" became responsible for ensuring a steady supply of timber. Even with the country's mills regularly working long hours of overtime, timber for normal uses was in short supply.

The timber industry was classified as a "protected" industry, and the TTT's workforce were not required to sign up for military service. In a perverse twist of fate, the war kept the Mokai and Tatua sawmills working at peak capacity, and Mokai was bustling like never before.

At the other end of the TTT's railway, Putaruru also reacted ambivalently to the war. The company headquarters, with its timber yard and dressing mill, were among the town's major employers. As well as the TTT, several other sawmills were now operating in the area. Unlike the TTT, these mills used the district's recently constructed roads to transported their sawn timber. Putaruru was the nearest railway station, and the focal point for this timber trade. As well as the timber trade, Putaruru had become the centre of a growing farming district. With both its major industries "protected" from military service, the town grew steadily during the war. By 1943 a town board census found that Putaruru had 964 residents, plus another 56 who were away at the war.

Petrol and tyres were in short supply and the authorities became interested in using the TTT railway to handle timber from other mills. This was not as easy at it sounds, because the southern section of the TTT railway, with its very tight curves, required special locomotives and freight cars. Government railway equipment could not operate south of the Kopokorahi Stream, and acquiring more locomotives and freight cars during the war was out of the question. Nevertheless, the TTT railway was busier than it had ever been, operating five or sometimes six trains per week.

For loaded timber trains, travelling northward from Mokai to Putaruru, the line was predominantly a downhill run, except for the section between Ongaroto and the Wawa saddle. Here, the line climbed steadily for 10 miles (16 km), and the 1 in 45 ruling grade conspired with several very sharp curves to create a challenge for the engine crews. The fire needed a constant supply of wood to keep the steam at maximum pressure, taxing the fireman's stamina. If the engine driver applied too much steam, the wheels could slip, stalling the heavy train. In winter, icy rails compounded the problem. The heavy wartime trains often required both of the larger Heisler engines to cope with this stretch. Even then, there were times when, unable to start a stalled train on the steep grade, they were forced to back down the hill and have another go! When that happened, children at the Ongaroto school were treated to the exciting spectacle of the timber train charging at the "Wawa bank" twice in one day, the throb of the Heislers' exhausts shattering the tiny village's tranquillity and ensuring no school work was done till the train had disappeared up the valley.

In 1943, under pressure to carry more timber and farm produce, the TTT hired a "Fairlie" locomotive to haul trains between the "19 mile peg", near Kopokorahi, and Putaruru. This locomotive had been built for the government railways during the late nineteenth century when that system was, like the TTT railway, very lightly constructed. Known simply by its government railway designation “R29”, the light, flexible Fairlie was well suited to the northern section of the TTT railway, and for six months it hauled extra trains loaded with timber and farm produce over the line.

In spite of these efforts, the company was still losing money on its railway operations. Transport technology had moved on, and the quaint TTT trains, which had so effectively connected the remote kainga of Mokai to the outside world in 1905, were now relics of a bygone age. Besides the operating losses, the railway was giving the company another headache. At the turn of the century the railway had crossed a landscape that was mainly desert, here and there punctuated by isolated forests. By the 1930s, much of the district had been transformed by the enthusiastic efforts of several afforestation companies, who planted hundreds of thousands of acres in pine trees. Every timber train had the potential to start a forest fire that could destroy this increasingly valuable asset, putting the TTT in a very embarrassing situation.

By spring 1944 the restrictions on petrol and tyres were being relaxed and Putaruru transport contractor Charlie Robinson's fleet of trucks took over sawn timber transport from the TTT mills to Putaruru. Its railway redundant at last, the company began lifting the rails to sell them for scrap. But although the railway had run at a loss since the mill cut back to single shift working all those years before, the company could not get rid of it so easily. Pressure from local groups forced it to continue providing its regular train service over the northern 19 miles of the line until mid 1947, when the government took over this section of the line.

The end of the war brought more changes for the TTT. The Mokai forests were virtually exhausted, and the Tatua forests were also approaching exhaustion. Before the company could begin preparations for milling its Tauri-Tutukau forest, however, it was hit by another setback. In October 1944 Mokai number two mill was destroyed by fire. Until a mill could be built to tap the new forest, the company needed every ounce of production the Mokai number one and Tatua mills could muster. As Mokai approached the end of its life as a major timber milling town, it was as busy as it had ever been.

Change

For some years, the New Zealand Government Railway Department had operated a sawmill at Maroa, near the main road north of Taupo, and about 7 miles (11 km) east of Mokai. Towards the end of the war, its forest cut out, the Railway Department closed this mill, moving its operations to Mamaku. Strategically located between the Tauri-Tutukau and Tatua forests, Maroa was the ideal site for the new TTT sawmill. The company bought the 183 acre mill site, included 25 existing houses. With an additional 25 houses and a brand new sawmill, Maroa became the company's new production centre. Following the company's traditional approach, the new mill was the most modern in the country, its innovative features suggesting it had a long life ahead of it. The largest native timber sawmill in New Zealand, its three boilers were fired almost entirely by sawdust. A special forced draft system ensured that the wet sawdust was burned efficiently, and little was left as waste. A sprinkler system backed up by two large pumps, and a new water supply, acknowledged the company's old enemy, fire.

With the imminent opening of the new mill, Mokai, once a picturesque village of well-tended gardens and orchards, gradually fell into disrepair. Some of its residents expected to transfer to Maroa, but many others moved away in search of other work. True to its agreement with the original landowners, the company removed most of the houses and other buildings, leaving the land clear.

The new company township at Maroa boasted a shop, school, and town hall, yet with a total mill staff of 70, it was much smaller than Mokai had been. Initially, the Tauri-Tutukau forest was worked by the same methods as had been used in the Mokai forests, except that by this time, chainsaws were replacing axes and cross-cut saws. Log haulers hauled logs from the bush workings to the loading skids, and light temporary railway lines conveyed them to the mill. The company's small Heisler locomotives, numbers one and two, which had worked so hard in the bush at Mokai, were given new boilers for this new tour of duty. In the event, however, only number one served at Maroa while number two was sold to Ellis & Burnand to haul logs at Ongarue, in the King Country.

By the early 1950s bush work in the Tauri-Tutukau forest had changed. Instead of steam log haulers, diesel bulldozers hauled logs to the loading skids. Forest roads built of locally obtained pumice proved economic now that bulldozers and other machinery were available, and logging trucks replaced the venerable Heisler locomotive. The fire risk associated with felling and logging operations was dramatically reduced, albeit at the cost of a noticeable increase in noise.

By the end of the 1940s the company was free of the debts that had hampered its operations for so long. With the finest remaining stand of native milling timber in the North Island, a healthy balance sheet, and a history of overcoming adversity, the TTT, once an investor's worst nightmare, was becoming an attractive investment. In 1956 a New Zealand Stock Exchange report looked at seventeen companies whose shares had been traded for twenty years. This revealed that over that period, TTT shares were among the most profitable, the total return being more than three times the average of the seventeen companies. Not only did the company now have a reputation for trading profitably, it had every prospect of showing even better returns in the future.

In 1947, John Strang retired as Chairman, staying on as a director. Strang, who with his brothers had been a shareholder since the company's beginning, was one of the few original promoters who lived to see the company become prosperous. His successor, Major Robert Wilson, was the son of another original TTT shareholder, Sir James Wilson.

At the end of 1949, having steered the TTT through the difficult war years, with the urgency of maintaining full production in the face of severe shortages and high taxation, Geoff Strang retired as General Manager, remaining on TTT board until his death in 1963. Harry Woollett, Company Secretary since 1949, took over as General Manager.

Expansion

Although Newmarket was still a major outlet for the TTT's timber, the company's business in the immediate post-war years changed significantly so that by 1951 about half the mill's output of timber was being sold through its timber yard at Putaruru. In both markets, heavy demand for homes for returned servicemen had resulted in a shortage of all types of building supplies.

The TTT quickly added exotic timbers such as radiata pine to its product range by securing supplies from other sawmillers. In Putaruru it installed a tanalith treatment plant, allowing the use of treated radiata pine and non-heart matai timber where previously only heart timber would have been accepted. Drying kilns at Newmarket and Putaruru further helped its ability to quickly fill timber orders.

With an established name, the TTT found it was able to successfully expand the scope of its operations, adding builders' and plumbers' hardware to its range of products. As the company grew, its Putaruru complex grew apace. The Putaruru dressing mill had been destroyed by fire in 1949; its replacement was soon joined by a sash and door factory. New showrooms and stores supported the hardware sales activities, and a new office block improved working conditions for the administrative staff. The original staff houses behind the mill were replaced with modern ones. Some surplus land was subdivided and sold to provide more room for Putaruru's accelerated growth.

With this expansion of its Putaruru operations came the need to ensure that the town's development kept pace with that of the company, but the TTT was not the only local business that was expanding. A new timber company, formed during the war to mill a forest west of Mokai, was also making its mark on Putaruru. This was PTY Industries Limited, the brain child of Bill Pass, John Mason, and his brother Jim Mason, and named after timber merchant Bill Pass's "Putaruru Timber Yard". Jim Mason, a Putaruru lawyer, became the leading figure in the TTT's younger rival, and like Harry Woollett, he realised that what was good for Putaruru was good for his company. In 1950, Harry Woollett became a borough councillor, and Jim Mason became Putaruru’s mayor, cementing both companies' commitment to the fast growing township. With an overloaded water supply, sewage still being handled by night cart, and very few other contemporary facilities, Putaruru was still very much a frontier town. Mason and Woollett joined a borough council that had a great deal to do!

Besides the TTT and PTY, other timber companies were moving in to Putaruru. Ellis & Burnand, one of the TTT’s old rivals from the early days, established a mill there in the early 1950s, and New Zealand Forest Products established a large complex at Pinedale, 4 km east of the town itself. These and other companies operated a total of ten timber mills in the Putaruru area. Serving a seemingly insatiable market, the rivalry between these companies spurred them on to ever more innovative approaches to the building supplies business. Mason introduced the idea of "pre-cutting", where house lots of timber were cut accurately in the factory, and delivered to building sites. The idea was very successful, speeding up house construction and reducing its cost. The TTT was quick to follow suit.

With huge areas around Putaruru planted in radiata pine, there was at this time a great deal of pressure to find profitable uses for the maturing forests. Although the pulp and paper industry was expected to consume the major portion, tanalith treatment had been proven to effectively overcome radiata's poor natural resistance to decay and sales of sawn radiata were expanding rapidly. This encouraged the TTT to find a more secure source of this increasingly important timber. In 1955 they bought a radiata sawmill in Tokoroa from Pacific Forests Limited, with cutting rights over Pacific's exotic forests for 30 years. With the combination of this mill and its Putaruru tanalith plant, the company was poised to benefit from the expected growth in radiata sales.

The company was now marketing a complete range of building supplies, and it was beginning to expand by opening new outlets. By the late 1950s, the TTT had established yards in Matamata, Cambridge, and Tokoroa, as well as the long established Putaruru and Newmarket yards.

The new emphasis on retail sales of building supplies, and the much easier transport situation, prompted a redevelopment of the Newmarket branch. The old buildings were demolished, and the drying kiln sold. A new 15,000 square foot building replaced a jumbled collection of older buildings allowing a much more efficient operation. In future, all timber processing was done at Putaruru.

During the 1950s, the TTT's turnover increased three-fold, reaching £1,031,643 by 1961. The company had been able to finance this expansion by issuing new shares, which were snapped up by a share market that now saw the TTT as a very good investment.

When Major Wilson retired as Chairman in 1958, Leo Pulham took over for a two-year stint, after which Henry Brown became Chairman. As the TTT prepared to embark on a period of expansion, Wilson must have been pleased with the company's dramatic progress during his time in the chair.

Prosperit

Early in the new decade, the TTT's directors visited Major Wilson's Marton Sash & Door Company sawmill at Marton, and the Kauri Timber Co sawmill at Ross on the West Coast. Unlike most of the sawmills in New Zealand, these mills were equipped with bandsaws. With a much thinner blade than the circular saws used in other New Zealand mills, the bandsaw converts less wood to sawdust, and consequently a bandsaw mill will "recover" more sawn timber from a particular log than a circular sawmill.

Bartholomew's sawmill at Wereroa, near Levin, north of Wellington, had operated a bandsaw mill as early as 1896. However, most timber companies found that the bandsaw’s increased yield was not enough to offset the increased complexities of owning and operating the machine. By the 1960s, however, the situation had changed. The combined effects of a strong demand for timber, a labour shortage, increased royalties for logs and increasing logging costs encouraged timber companies to emphasise better recovery rates.

Logging trucks had improved markedly since the Maroa mill opened, and with the TTT now milling logs from a variety of areas, the Maroa site was no longer the best location for its sawmill. Putaruru was a more central location. Faced with this situation, the directors decided to replace the Maroa mill with a new mill, this time located at Putaruru. The Maroa mill ceased production in 1962, and the Putaruru bandsaw mill was in production the following February.

The new mill proved well worth the investment, giving a 75% recovery rate compared with the old mill's 60%. As well as increasing the life of the company's remaining native timber resources, the new mill required fewer staff, an important consideration for a company whose operations were expanding rapidly. After operating steam powered sawmills for nearly sixty years, the company had finally left the steam era behind it. After being the TTT's production hub for less than a generation, the village of Maroa disappeared, almost without a trace. Many of its buildings, including the mill building and the single men's huts, were relocated to Putaruru. Today, only a few heavily overgrown concrete blocks, once part of the mill’s foundations, remain at Maroa. The official opening of the new bandsaw mill in May 1963 was a major event in Putaruru. Guest of honour was the Prime Minister, the Hon Keith Holyoake, and the company produced a souvenir booklet for the occasion.

In the same year, the Putaruru complex was further expanded with the completion of a bulk hardware store, facilities for direct loading of timber onto railway wagons, and a new cafeteria to provide for the increased staff numbers working there.

Once the success of the Putaruru band mill was beyond doubt, the company converted its Tokoroa mill to use a bandsaw as well, the saw maintenance shop at Putaruru maintaining the saw blades for both mills.

With demand for radiata pine continuing to grow, in 1964 the company began planting radiata pine on cut over parts of the Tauri-Tutukau block, and shortly afterwards, also began restocking the Pacific forests block.

No doubt encouraged by the success of its residential subdivision in Putaruru, in 1965 the company began to acquire land for residential subdivisions in Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua and Matamata. This was, perhaps, a recognition that its business was firmly based on housing construction. To be able to offer not only the materials to build a house, but a place to put it, would be a logical progression for such a company. As if to underscore this commitment to new home construction, in the same year, the TTT installed a finger jointing plant, the first of its kind in New Zealand. By converting otherwise unusable off cuts into useful timber, this machine further increased the yield from its forests, while also adding a new and more economical material to the home building market. The Putaruru plant also began manufacturing bench tops using Laminex and Formica. Later, the Putaruru yard began producing gang nail trusses and other heavy structural products.

Henry Brown died in 1965, and Dr Owen Haylock took over as Chairman. Dr. Haylock was Major Wilson's son in law, representing the third generation of that family's involvement with the company. A director since the mid fifties, Dr Haylock's keen interest in new technology had been a strong influence within the TTT board.

Also in that year, the company adopted a new expansion strategy, when it took over the business of G.A. Harker Limited, which became the Taupo Totara Timber Company (Rotorua) Limited, the latest addition to the growing network of branches. The following year, Speight, Pearce, Nicoll, Davies Limited of Cambridge became the Taupo Totara Timber Company (SPND) Limited, a much expanded Cambridge branch. Tokoroa was becoming an important market as the town grew rapidly to support the pulp and paper mill at Kinleith, near the old TTT railway‘s 19 mile peg. A new hardware branch supplemented the Tokoroa yard in 1966, moving into new purpose built premises in 1968. Pacific Forests Limited, previously a supplier the to TTT, was taken over in 1966, securing for the company what had now become a vital source of radiata pine. Parts of this company's forests needed thinning. To dispose of logs from the thinning operations, the company embarked on another new venture, shipping radiata logs to Japan.

At the end of 1968, Harry Woollett retired as Managing Director. His successor, Darcy Rowe, had been appointed General Manager on Woollett's promotion to Managing Director in 1965, and in the busy years that followed, the smooth transition from one leader to the next maintained the company's momentum.

The TTT's 1970 takeover of KDV industries gave it an expanded market for its building products, with new outlets at Mornington in Auckland, and Whangarei. This company's rain wear, canvas, and aluminium foil manufacturing operations also marked a new direction for the company, adding manufacturing to its other activities. Following this takeover, in 1971 the company moved its Newmarket branch to Wiri, in South Auckland, giving a broader coverage of the Auckland market. To expand its export operations, the TTT took over the Te Puke based Matakana Milling and Export Corporation Limited. This company operated a sawmill on Matakana Island, the barrier island that protects Tauranga harbour, working the long established radiata forest there. It had pioneered radiata pine exports to Japan. Like KDV, this company also added further retail outlets, this time in Tauranga.

In 1971, another first for the company was a shipment of pre-cut homes to Noumea. The newly incorporated subsidiary company, South Pacific Homes, had been formed specifically to develop this export business, a logical extension of the company's by now comprehensive coverage of the building industry.

New Zealand Forest Products had been watching the company's growth for some time. In 1970 it made an offer to the shareholders for their TTT shares. Although the offer was strongly opposed by Dr Haylock and Darcy Rowe, the shareholders accepted, and the company became part of the NZ Forest Products group of companies in 1972. Until NZFP was divisionalised in 1987, the TTT brand remained, and the company continued to grow under the management of former Assistant General Manager Doug Gibbs.

For TTT staff, the takeover marked the end of an era. For them, the family atmosphere of the company which had built Mokai and Putaruru and operated that picturesque old railway was no longer recognisable in the new corporate giant which had swallowed it up.

=Original text from TTT, 1951 - to rewrite and reference

Mr. H.B. Coupe was appointed manager and that was a big step in the rehabilitation of the Company. … He cut down expenses, gave up the unprofitable Wellington market, shifted the office to Putaruru and opened a yard in Newmarket, Auckland being the natural outlet for the Company's timber. In a short time the Company was on a profit-making basis.

Under Mr. Coupe's management the company prospered and during the war and for some years after good profits were made, the highlight being the year 1920 when the profits were £30,747. …

This expectation seemed justified, for the average profits of the previous four years had been over £15,000 per annum. The next year[1926], however, with £19,382 profit was the high water mark of that period, and profits began to dwindle, and in 1932, with the advent of the worldwide slump, turned to losses for that and the two following years.

… But with the advent of the war in 1939 came heavy rising taxation and the high proportion of preference capital caused a serious position. In bad times preference capital is much safer than debentures, as no dividend need be paid unless it is earned. With war and high taxation, a much larger profit had to be earned to pay the dividend and at one period during the war the Company had to earn nearly £20,000 profit to pay the £6630 dividend due on the Preference issue. …

… in 1947 the share capital showed in the Balance Sheet as under:- Ordinary Shares: 175,107 of 10/- each fully paid - £87,553.

… Mr. Coupe was manager for 30 years and a director till his death in 1941.

… Tauri Tutukau is a mixed bush of Rimu, Matai and Totara, with the Rimu preponderating, and only about 15% Totara. However, Rimu is more valuable now than Totara was a few years ago.

The Maroa bush is probably the finest block of native bush left in the North Island and comprises about 4000 acres of freehold land. It stands in the books at £42,340, but at market value is worth many times that amount. The bush was estimated by the New Zealand Forest Service to contain 100 million board feet of rimu, 20 milllion feet of matai, and 20 million feet of totara. The Company has cut out about 19 million feet and about 20 million feet have been sold to other sawmillers. As, however, the area so far cut out has produced very much more than the estimate, it may be regarded as conservative.

The roads for working the bush have been surveyed and laid out and partly constructed. They are surfaced with pumice obtained near the road, and preliminary trials have shown that they can be kept in good order quite cheaply. Working the bush in this manner will make it more flexible and easier organized than by a steam tram and log haulers. Mr J. McPherson is in charge of the bush workings.

The Taupo-Totara Timber Co, purchased 25 substantially built cottages used by them [NZR]. They were well laid out in streets, well painted, with water laid on, and have been supplemented by 25 other houses, partly built by the Company and partly built under the subsidised scheme initiated by the N.Z. Forest Service, which lets them on easy terms to the sawmillers. The 50 houses now form a compact township called Maroa, with a good public hall and school and a privately owned store.

Power [for the Maroa mill] is generated in three boilers each over 60 horsepower. They are fired chiefly by sawdust … As wet sawdust is difficult to burn forced draught from fans is used to help combustion. This system thus provides power and disposes of the sawdust. All the sawdust is burnt with a few additional slabs used chiefly for starting the firing.

Putaruru has undergone considerable development in the last few years. Previously Newmarket provided the main outlet for the timber produced and most of the remaining timber was sold on rail. Lately the growth of Putaruru has been such that the local demand now absorbs half the mill output, the other half going to Newmarket.

A new dressing plant has just been completed [at Putaruru] to replace the one lost by fire about eighteen months ago. This is designed for much more economical working than formerly, and a large incinerator has been built which burns all the shavings and sawdust produced in the plant, the machines all being driven by electric motors. A well-designed fan system takes all the shavings and sawdust direct from the machines to the incinerator.

In addition, Hickson Timber Treatments have just installed a plant for treating timber with tanalith preservative under pressure. This is worked by the Taupo-Totara Timber Co. and a large output of treated timber is already being produced, the chief timber used being being Pinus Radiata and O.B. Matai. When treated, these timbers are now being used in place of heart timbers and are helping to eke out our valuable heart timbers.

The yard has been redesigned to allow of its being worked with a fork lift, which is functioning so successfully that another fork lift truck has been placed on order. All timber from the mill is now being unloaded by the fork lift, and timber for drying is  filleted on the ground and then placed in position on the stack by the lift. When dry, stacks for dressing are also taken down and placed in yard trucks by the lift, and then taken to the planing machines.

A Sash and Door plant is planned and machinery has been purchased, and the building will be erected shortly

Hardware sales are an important branch of business at Putaruru and showrooms and stores for holding stocks have been built. Sales from Putaruru have expanded very much.

Demand for Pinus Radiata is also increasing rapidly, specially since the installation of the treatment plant. Supplies are bought from millers in the district and help to supply orders which otherwise would have to be turned down.

Besides owning several sections in the town area, [of Putaruru] on which are built houses occupied by the staff, the Company owns an area of 45 acres, on which the dressing plant and yard and more houses owned by the Company are situated. The portion of this area not required for business purposes has a potential value for building sites and a subdivision plan is being prepared for this purpose.

A few years ago a dry kiln was installed, [at Newmarket] and dressing timbers now go directly into the kiln from railway trucks making it possible fulfill [sic? Check] orders for dry timbers in a few days.

TTT Railway

Main article: Mokai_Tramway

The 82 kilometres (51 mi) Taupo Totara Timber Company Railway was built for the TTT between 1903 and 1905 by John McLean & Sons to carry sawn timber from the TTT sawmill at Mokai (23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of Taupō) to the government railway at Putāruru. It was designed as a contour[4] railway by former Wellington and Manawatu Railway engineer and TTT director James Fulton,[4][5] who in 1903 temporarily resigned his position on the TTT board to supervise construction of the railway and sawmills.

The TTT took over the completed railway in late 1905. In addition to sawn timber from the TTT mill, the railway carried passengers, mail, and freight for nearbvy settlements including Atiamuri, Oruanui, Ongaroto, Tokoroa, and Lichfield.

The TTT Railway closed on 26 October 1944. The company sold the 19 miles (31 km) section beetween Putāruru and Kopakorahi to the New Zealand Government. The Public Works Department continued to operate this section until 1947, using rolling purchased from the TTT.

Company structure

In 1900 & early 1901 Tudor Atkinson and his colleagues registered two companies:

• The Wellington Industrial Development Company (Limited) (WID)
• The Taupo Totara Timber Company (Limited) (TTT)

A board of directors, with three directors from each company, acted as a combined group. All six directors attended TTT/WID board meetings board meetings, simultaneously governing both companies.

In 1915 the board incorporated a new company, the Taupo Totara Timber Co Ltd. The new company took over the assets and liabilities of the original companies, which were wound up.

Bibliography

Davies1990 Davies, I.; & Forshaw, R.: Mokai, Taupo: Mokai School and Residents Reunion Committee, 1990.

lory1977 Lory, D.; & Paul, Z.: Early Tokoroa, Rotorua: 1977.

Roche1987 Roche, M.M.: Forestry Policy on New Zealand - an historical geography 1840 - 1919, Palmerston North, N.Z.: Dunmore Press, 1987.

Roche1990 Roche, M.: History of New Zealand Forestry, Wellington: New Zealand Forestry Corporation Ltd + GP Publications Ltd, 1990.

TTT1925a Taupo Totara Timber Co. Ltd.: Report of the Proceedings of the Annual General Meeting of the company and of the Special General Meetings of the three classes of Shareholders in the Company's Capital held at the Accountant's Chambers, Johnston Street, Wellington, on Wednesday, 15th day of July, 1925.

TTT1951 Taupo Totara Timber Co. Ltd.: Fifty Years of Progress - 1901-1951, Auckland: Sparrow Industrial Pictures Ltd., 18 Courthouse Lane, 1951.

Yonge1985 Yonge, J.: New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas (3rd ed.), Exeter, England: The Quail Map Company, 1985.