Coal Creek Sawmill (James Duncean, proprietor), Coal Creek, Greymouth. This mill is situated near the Coal Creek bridge, about three miles from Greymouth. It possesses a complete and up-to-date plant, including one portable and one stationary engine, a twin saw breaking-down bench, one breast bench, a planing machine, and a hauling engine of eight horsepower of the latest design, built at the Dispatch Foundry, Greymouth. The capacity of the mill is about 7000 feet per day, and fifteen persons are employed. The timber—red and white pine—is carted to Greymouth by road. Mr. Duncan owns about 214 acres of timber.

Mr. James Duncan , Proprietor and Manager of the Coal Creek Sawmill, also conducts a dairy farm at Coal Creek, where he has a comfortable homestead. He was born at West Taieri, Otago, in the year 1863, and brought up on a farm. Mr. Duncan afterwards learned sawmilling, an occupation formerly followed by his father. He was subsequently contracting and managing mills in Southland, and in 1901 removed to the West Coast. Later, Mr. Duncan started a small mill at Coal Creek, and established his present mill in 1903. He gave the timber for the local school, which was afterwards removed to Runanga. Mr. Duncan at one time was a competitor in chopping and sawing contests. He is married, and has a family of seven sons and three daughters.

Mawhera Quay in Flood.
Ring, photo.

McAlpine, George Grant, Sawmill Manager, Greymouth. Mr. McAlpine is employed by Mr. Perotti, a well known Greymouth sawmiller and speculator. He is generally in charge of one of Mr. Perotti's mills, but is largely employed in erecting and altering mills, and dredges, etc., Mr. McAlpine was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in the year 1864, came to New Zealand in 1876, and settled in the Canterbury district, where he was engaged in farming for some years. He has had considerable experience in connection with farming machinery, especially traction and portable engines, and for some time was owner of a traction plant. Mr. McAlpine removed to the West Coast, and was engaged in sluicing for about two years. He then became connected with the sawmilling industry, and has been employed by Mr. Perotti since the year 1897. Mr. McAlpine holds a second class certificate for traction and portable engines. He is married, and has four children.

Stratford, Blair and Company, Limited (D. Tennent, manager; W. T. Ogilvie, secretary), Timber Merchants and Sawmillers, Greymouth Sash and Door Factory. Sawmills at Arnold's Siding, Kokiri, Kaimata and Greymouth. This company was incorporated in the year 1904, when the businesses of the Greymouth Sash and Door Factory, and of Messrs Stratford, Blair and Company were amalgamated. The four splendid mills of the firm are all driven by steam power, and the latest, most modern, and most complete machinery is at work in each mill. About 1,000 acres of freehold, and 3,000 acres of leasehold timber lands, are worked by the company. Red, white, and silver pine and birch (beech) are the timbers used, and are among the best selected and carefully dried on the Coast. The total output of timber from the mills is from four to five million feet annually, and the greater portion is exported from Greymouth. The Sash and Door Factory is centrally situated in Greymouth, and the building measures eighty-nine feet by forty feet. Many thousands of feet of well seasoned timber are kept in stock, ready for manufacturing purposes. The plant, which consists of a large American moulder, a chain saw mortice, chisel mortice, fret, and band saws, plane moulder, and all necessary machinery, is driven by a twenty-three brake gas engine. From 100 to 120 persons altogether are employed in connection with the mills and factory.

Mr. Edmund Stratford , one of the principal proprietors of Stratford, Blair and Company, sawmillers, was born in the year 1849, at the Hutt, near Wellington, where he went to school. He commenced work in connection with farming, and removed to the West Coast, in 1869. For some time Mr. Stratford was engaged in contract work in the construction of railway and county bridges. In the year 1887, he commenced a sawmilling business, in conjunction with Mr. Blair, under the style of Stratford and Blair. The firm was afterwards changed to Stratford, Blair and Company, and was incorporated as a limited company, under the same style, in February, 1905. Mr. Stratford married a daughter of the late Mr. Henry Pelling, of Greymouth, and has three sons.

The West Coast Timber Trading Company . Headquarters, Richmond Quay, Greymouth, Secretary, Mr. E. A. Wickes; manager of Christchurch branch, Mr. H. B. Coupe. This company is formed of sawmillers in the Grey and Westland counties, and was established in the year 1895 for the mutual protection of the trade. Each sawmill proprietor is a director of the company. The company has engaged the services of a timber expert in Melbourne, and its shipments to that port in white pine alone, for butter-box making, sometimes exceed 2,000,000 feet per year. The schooners “Zion” and “Sir Henry” convey freights round the coast of New Zealand and to intercolonial ports.