In 1840, around two-thirds of New Zealand was still covered in forest and this provided the basis for a strong indigenous timber industry for more than 100 years. A fine timber industry song, 'The Mill', was first published in Neil Colquhoun’s excellent ‘Song of a Young Country’ in 1977. It is attributed to a C.H. Winter about whom nothing is known.

THE MILL
(C.H. Winter attributed)

Beside a clump o’ needlewood we anchored down the mill
The engine’s by the blue-clay tank and further up the hill
The men are marking out the trees and the chips are on the wing
So early in the morning you can hear the axes ring

(Chorus)
With a jigger and a jemmy and a shigger and a shammy
And the sawdust in the sky
I keep thinking will he gimme up all of me money
Or wait till the big ‘uns lie

We’ve laid the bench and trued the saw and given her one spin
The benchman eyes his pet with pride and pats the packing in
He chocked the engines rolling wheels and backed the watercart
And heaped a stack of shortening wood in readiness to start

Chorus

We have no tearing vertical, we run no twin saws here
No clanking winches, swinging cranes, no wealth of yankee gear
No office clerk with collar white, no gangs of many men
We run a simple clearing mill and number nine or ten

Chorus

We grease the transports, oil the trucks, the benchman gives a sign
The engine starts, the big belt flaps and saw begins to whine
The sun comes out a scorcher and the bullocks raise the dust
The waterbags gets covered and our throats begin to rust

Chorus

The hill is looking strange and bare, the bigger trees are cut
And through the gaps we catch a sight of some gum digger’s hut
The ground is scoured by dragging logs, the grog is put to rout
And now it’s just a few more days and we’ll be all cut out

Chorus

At first, some timber was milled near the logging site. Logs were jammed into position on a platform over a pit. They were then cut by 2 men using a crosscut saw, one standing on top of the log and one beneath. Pit-sawing, however, could not keep up with demand for timber and, after 1865, steam-driven mills were developed with steam generated by burning wood waste. The logs were hauled by bullock teams or rolled by means of timber jacks.

--Stewie.