Henry Alexander Horrocks

1 Nov

Auckland solicitor Harry Horrocks was asked in 1925 for help to develop the 18,321ha Pukahunui Block on the Kaingaroa Plains.

A plan to turn it into farmland had failed and Horrocks formed a company to acquire the block for forestry.

The new company, eventually known as the Whakatane Board Mills, started planting the land and financed the deal by selling forestry bonds to the public.

A former meatworks at Whakatane was acquired as the site for a proposed pulp-and-paper mill. But a lack of capital and import restrictions meant it was July 1939 before an imported board machine was in commercial production.

Horrocks died of pneumonia before the mill proved its worth.