EMPIRE'S TIMBER SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2955, 15 December 1916, Page 18

EMPIRE'S TIMBER SUPPLY

SUGGESTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT . Professor Percy Groom, who occu- _ pies the Chair of Technology of Woods and Fibres at the Imperial College of Science, delivered an address recently, before' the London Chamber of Commerce on "The Empire's Timber Trade: Its Future and Technology." Professor Groom thought there was little doubt that definite protective tariffs would be adopted after tho war, but so far as timber was • concerned it was not merely a question of grading, the tariffs as regarded raw material and-, manufactured articles, for the problem!/, would inevitably arise as to the extent to which wood grown within the British Empiro should be . given a tariff preference. Doubtless more than ono country of tho British Empire would ask for such preference for its woods and wood products. The British nation was generally in favour of utilising to the fullest the resources of the. British Empire- _ . ; The British Empire included within it.? confines a larger amount and wider range of timbers than were possessed! by any other State. Research was required to determine the properties of these woods, especially the less wellknown ones, and tho uses to which they, could be applied. The dominant; fact in connection, with our timber imports was tho enormous sum of over £30,000,000 which we paid for soft woods. After dealing in some detail with this point and the supply-of hard . wood within the Empire, he said that' any comprehensive scheme of research! should include the investigation of the problems concerning industries largely using wood. For instance, pianos to tho value of hundreds of thousands of pounds woro before the war annually imported into England from Germany. He had little doubt that by research: conduoted in co-operation by pianomakers, a physicist, a steel expert, and a timber technologist, we should soon learn the secret of the manufacture of pianos with tho rich yet mellow tone which rendered German pianos famous. He suggested tho establishment of an Imperial Timber Bureau in London in connection with an institution having not merely a timber department, but woll-staffed and wellequipped chemical, physical, engineering, and fuel departments and workshops. . This Bureau would be in closest touch with the various countries- • of the British Empire, and with the timber and alliej trades, ■ and would supply technical advice and conduct investigations. In co-operation with the timber trade it would, he believed, lead to a vast increaso in the exploitation of woods grown in the ,British Em-, pirjsi to the advancement of neglected industries, to decreased waste,'and to less loss through decay. , .