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Why is anyone surprised by this?

I live in a small New Zealand town called Tokoroa.

The town was built largely to support a nearby pulp and paper mill at Kinleith.

This mill has been the lifeblood of the town and much of the surrounding district.

Over the many years since its construction, ownership and operation of the mill has changed hands a number of times but the basic processes performed there have remained fairly constant.

Wood from nearby forests is converted into wood-pulp and then further processed into paper.

So why were so many people surprised yesterday when it was announced that over 200 workers were to lose their jobs as the paper mill side of the operation was shut down?

Why is the mill shutting down? Well, if you haven't heard of "the paperless office" then you've been living under a rock for the past few decades.

I think I first heard the term in the late 1970s or early 1980s, as the potential for computers to revolutionise the world of data storage, processing, transfer and communications became very apparent. Why would we need to print stuff or write it down when it could be much more efficiently handled as a series of ones and zeros stored and processed in the ether?

The reality is that these days, we just don't use a hell of a lot of paper... at least not compared to 40 years ago when the paper mill at Kinleith was in its hayday.

Screens, tablets, keyboards and SSDs have replaced pen, paper, ink and printer.

Then the's effect of another change I've already commented on in the past week: the death of newspapers, at least in their printed form.

This isn't just a change affecting New Zealand. All over the world, newspapers and other periodicals are "going digital" and shutting down their printed editions in favour of websites, apps and other technologies.

In fact, pretty soon, just about the only thing we'll be using paper for is to wipe our bottoms after visiting the toilet. Even that may change however, as soon as we can work out how to use the three shells.

According to this story "Former ANZ chief economist and Bagrie Economics founder Cameron Bagrie told the Waikato Times the job losses would be “devastating” for Tokoroa."

You think?

I take very little satisfaction from, just a few weeks ago, publishing a video on Facebook warning the local council that they were failing to manage the risk associated with having a local economy that was so dependent on a few core industries. It was foolish, I said, to put all your eggs in so few baskets instead of focusing on diversifying the local economy so as to avoid a situation just like this one.

Sadly, as usual, this council has zero clues and always dismiss my warnings, observations recommendations and advice out of hand. Once again I'll quote the words of Councilor (and former deputy Mayor) Bill Machen who told me to my face "Bruce, you have some great ideas but because it's you, we're not listening".

This is a tragedy for the town and the wider district. The blow that's just been delivered could have been significantly lessened if only we had a council that was more interested in doing the right thing rather than continuing to exercise their petty agendas against members of the community who only seek to do the best for their fellow citizens.

I feel particularly sorry for the three women councilors (councilors Farrell, Purdy and Wallace) who, because they have spoken on behalf of the community, now also find themselves to be victims of this petty mindset on the part of the Mayor, CEO and other councilors.

On the plus side, this fiasco may be the catalyst needed for ratepayers to rise up and question the competence and agenda of those who begged for our votes just two short years ago.

Carpe Diem folks!

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