THE VISION REMAINS INTACT

Following the sale of both the Aupōuri forest and the Kaitāia-based NPL mill in 1990 to Juken New Zealand (JNL), the members of the Northern Federation of Māori Authorities (NORFED) negotiated individual lease reviews with JNL for each of their forests.

By the mid-1990s, NORFED had effectively gone into recess, but the vision remained intact.  In the intervening years, the Aupōuri forest has changed ownership at least once more, and the original mill, built in the 1980s, has been expanded to include other mills which produce other wood panel products besides triboard.

There were a number of factors that influenced the building of those mills in Kaitāia.  The support of local and central government regulators helped, as did the town’s proximity to the neighbouring Aupōuri forest with its nursery and forest school, both since closed. However, in my opinion, these were all secondary to the relationship and agreement between Keith Hunt and the NORFED forest owners.  

Whether you love, hate or are completely indifferent to the original mill, it was built on the shared vision of NORFED and NPL leaders. 

Similarly, in the 1960s and 70s, the Aupōuri forest had been planted on the shared vision of local Iwi and New Zealand Forest Service (NZFS) leaders. But, while Dr Barry Rigby’s 1999 report, A History of the Aupouri State Forest, fully covers the establishment of the Aupōuri forest, there isn’t a similar record about the NORFED forests and the NPL mill; what little there is mentions Keith Hunt only in passing, and NORFED’s leaders not at all.  That is why, in recent weeks, I have serialised this brief history about them.  It is nowhere near complete, but it is a start.

As Pētia Welsh predicted in the 1970s, forestry has become an economic mainstay in the region, and the power players are those who operate across the whole value chain of the industry.  Central to their success are the JNL mills, the 21,283 ha Aupōuri forest and the 12,000 has of forests planted on lands owned by the founding members of NORFED. 

Today’s entrepreneurs may disagree with NORFED’S focus on the monoculture of radiata pine; hei aha (whatever).  Theirs was a wide vision, but it was forged during a time when narrow monoculturalism was the norm across all aspects of society and so their focus, by necessity, was also narrowed.   

Observing the steam issuing daily from the mills and the hundreds of workers and tonnes of logs passing through their gates, I am grateful that today’s entrepreneurs can have a wider vision and focus and are further across the entire value chain of their chosen industries than NORFED was able to get in forestry.

But most of all, I’m grateful to those entrepreneurs who preceded them, including Pētia (Bill) Welsh, Andrew Rollo, John Brown, Matiu Rata, Amy Tatana, Bully Kendall, Gloria Herbert ara ngā mate katoa o NORFED me ta rātou hoa mahi, Keith Hunt.  The vision remains intact.