The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]
Wood Trade
Wood Trade.
Hawera Sash and Door Factory (Quin Brothers, proprietors), Corner of Glover Road and Wilson Street, Hawera. This factory was established in the year 1896 by Messrs T. Twigg and John T. Quin, under the style of Twigg and Company. In 1899 Mr. Joseph Quin became a partner, and in 1903 Mr. Twigg's interest was acquired by Mr. A. A. Quin. The factory was erected in 1896, on a sec- page 248 tion of three acres of land, and is a two-storied building of wood and iron. A compound marine engine of fifty horse-power drives the plant, which is up-to-date in every respect. The ground floor contains one four-sided and one three-sided planer; a moulding machine; a large circular saw bench, and two smaller benches; two swing or goose saws; a screw-cutting lathe; an automatic knife-grinder; a drilling machine; two sets of emery stones; and also a box-making and printing plant. The first floor has Turner's wood lathes, an automatic band saw setter and sharpener, a combined saw bench and wood worker, band and scroll saws, a hand planer and jointer, and an automatic sash pulley morticer, besides boring, tenoning, morticing, mitring, and chain morticing machine, sash and door cramps, etc., The blacksmith's shop is a separate department, and contains all the necessary tools and appliances. Close to the main factory there is a cooperage, which is replete in all particulars. At the rear of the factory there is a large moulding shed, 120 feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and fourteen feet high, which contains about 260 styles of mouldings, and a large quantity of prepared dressed timber. The offices and store are in a large iron building, where considerable stocks of builders' ironmongery and glass are kept; the first floor is used for storing glazed sashes, turning and band-saw work. About 300 pairs of sashes are kept in stock, and there is about 1,250,000 feet of assorted timber in the yard. Thirty persons are employed in or about the factory. Messrs Quin Brothers own a sawmill at Midhurst, and have also secured the output of the Union Timber Company's mill at Midhurst.
Mr. Joseph Quin, Managing Partner of the Hawera Sash and Door Factory, was born in the year 1868, at the Limestone Plains, Southland. He was educated partly at his native place, and partly at Normanby, and afterwards was for ten years engaged in farming in Southland. In 1897 he sold out, and removed to Hawera, and has been connected with the factory ever since. Mr. Quin married a daughter of Captain John Macdonald, of the Bluff, in the year 1892.
Mr. G. Syme.