HOUSE SHORTAGE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 198, 17 May 1920, Page 5

HOUSE SHORTAGE

■:. '■■■ ■ frGOVERIW* URGED TO BUILD THE MATERIALS AND THE LABOUR- ■ '■-'''.— '. it TIMBER EXPORT \; DEMANDS OF LABOUR BODIES. Suggestions'for Government action to make possible an alleviation of the pre- ' .sent shortage of houses were made by .« deputation from the Carpenters and ' Joiwers'"Union and'other Labour bodies ; - ■ which waittd on the i'nmo Minister' on ' Saturday afternoon. The deputation was . introduced by Mr! P. Eraser, M.P. The first and most important request- made was that the export of timber > from tho country should be absolutely prohibited. Mr. Singleton, secretary of tho Carpenters' Union, said that in his capacity as .secretary of the union ho had to go round to every job in the city, and. everywhere he found that work w tts bold up for shortage of some sort of timber required for some special purpose. : There wag a general shortage-all round. Several builders had told him that they had had to refuso work through being -unable to get timber. Some builderß had given up business al- • together, and these were not men who had just come into the ■ business, but men who had been building contractors for a nnmber oi years. He had found also that owing to the. lack of timber ''suitable'for joinery one at least of the . joinery shops had had to close down, and in the case of another the employer . had put off his men and he was simply jobbing himself until he could be assured of supplies. Tile shortage of timber was : chiefly felt among tho smaller builden, who were* generally: the men who built houses and- cottages. Tho , larger contractors or most of- them had interesh in sawmills or timber yards, and they could be sure of getting supplies, either from their own concerns o: - by 'buying for in advance of requirements in large quantities. Embargo on Export? , 9 ■ The union he represented thought that the only way in which this ■ shortage of timber could be. met was, by who T iy stopping export. He had .found on' investigation that' in the past- three : years 195 million feet of timber had beei exported from New Zealand.-'.-. Mr. Massey: I don't think the amount is as'much as that. The figures supplied to me <lo not 6how nearly 60 much. Mi'. Singleton said the figures,he had produced were from the official statistics. It hod been,estimated that right through the - Dominion there was a shortage of 20,000 houses, and it was calculated that to .supply timber for all these houses four hundred-million feet of timber was ' required. In Wellington alone there was an absolute shortage of 2000 houses, to say nothing of numbers of-places now inhabited which ought to be removed • and replaced. For Wellington's needs from thirty to-forty million feet of timber would be required. There were about 800 carpenters in Wellington; and if all these men 'were diverted to tho building of houses it wpuld take two years to cope with the-present shortage. He would not suggest - that: all the carpenters should bo diverted to this class of work. . ■ ;'/ .' ' Government Control of. Supplies. In order to be assured .of supplies of timber he would urge 'that the Government should buy the total timber output of all tho mills, at the invoice price for export. In this way no injustice would bo imposed on the miller. The millers might plead that they were under contract to supply certain quantities of timber to their customers ..per year or per month'. The Government should examine'these contracts and be assured of their bona fides before taking notice of this plea. If this suggestion were given effect to he was perfectly sure that the cost of building houses would bo very much reduced. He would-ask the Gov- .'.' ernmeiitto deal'not only .with timber, but with other materials required in housebuilding, to take steps to provide ample supplies of all building materials, in order that the prices of houses should be brought within the reach of people of moderate means. There appeared to be. difficulty also about the carriage of; timber'bv sea. He understood that there were at Westhaven, a'port on the West Coast, only 180 miles from Wellington, 250,000 feet/ of timber awaiting shipment, and that the shipping owners were asking as much as 6s. per hundred feet for the carriage of this timber to Wellington. ,If the Government obtained a suitable ship this .timber could be brought to Wellington for much less than fis. Before the war the freight used to be 2s. 6d. This timber was offered to buyers in Wellington at 14s. 6d. per hundred feet. If. it. coiild be brought to Wellington for 25.. 6d.. per. hundred feet it could be landed here for 175., and as against this the' price charged in Wellington for the lowest grade of timber was 295. The manager of tho mill at Westhaven told him that he had three million feet of timber cut at tho mill ready to be carierd down to'the wharf as soon as shipping should be available, 'and, further, that' .ho/ had bush for iwer.ty years': cutting. Ho declared that one of the reasons for the high prices'and poor quality of timber in Wellington was on account of the opera- ' tion of. the timber ring existing her©.As. another means of getting timber mor-j cheaply here the deputation asked that the import duty on Oregon timber should be taken off. He understood that ; Pregon pine was imported into Wellington, duty paid, and.sold from merchant to merchant at 19s. per hundred feet, but if a'builder wanted any of it he had to pay 425. To Overtake the Shortage. Mr. J. Bead supported 'the demand that when there was a shortage of.timber and houses, no timber should be allowed to go out of the country. • While thare were few houses building, it did not appear that there was any skimp in •buildings for commercial purposes. It ' seemed to be a very sensible proposal that labour should be diverted from this work and used for-the construction of houses. •. The housing problem must be viewed to-day from a different stand-' point of that of pre-war days. Previously private enterprise was, generally speaking, found to make adequate provision, but the present position was 6uch that private enterprise could not possibly cope with' it. As.a man who bad had years of experience in bush sawmills, be could say that there was no reason except greed why timber should bo so deiir 10-dny. l . Mr. M'Kenzie said that on -the basis of a shortage of-20,000 houses, they asked the Government to make provision for overtaking tliis shortage within no lessa period than three years. Mr. Massey: Will you find the labour? Mr; M'Kenzie: Yes, sir. We have gone into that matter.. .. Mr. Massey said that ho would bo glad to take up the scheme if it were possible and the labour were forthcoming. Mr. M'Kenzie said Wat it had been estimated that 7000 houses a year could be built with the labour of 3000 carpenters. He asked that the Government stop unessential- building in order that these 3000 men should be freed for this work of building cottages. It was quite'clear that unless the present housing scbrtage was made up within a reasonable time it would never be made up, for in three years or less the population would have increased a good deal, and there would be a greater unsatisfied demand than ever for houses. Unless the solution of the trouble was rapid, there never could bo any solution or any approach to solution. .PRIME MimSTERIS REPLY TIMBER AND COAL. Mr. Massey, in reply, said he understood that,the deputation had asked for three things— thnt the expovt of timber be prohibited, < that building operations be limited to residences, and that the duty on imported timber should be removed. It was within the knowlcdgo of them all that, every carpenter in New Zealand at the present time was fully employed. He did not think that ther'o had ever been so much work in tbf way of building operations as at present. How many houses were being built ho could not tell. ■fle had asked tho Department for a ceneus of the number of houses building, but

he had not yet lad tho information. He admitted tho tremendous shortage of houses in Wellington and other centres, and he thought that it was particularly owing to tho fact that during this war period there was an interruption in building and the community had fallen into arrears in thfs respect. These arrears would have to be picked up, tnd ho believed that wo were picking up, if somewhat slowly. . With regard to tie complaint against the export of timber, ho wished it to bo understood that there was no indiscriminate or unregulated export of timber. He did not think it would oe difficult to prevent the export of timber_ if it were rot for our own necessity to import coal from Australia. This country did not produce., enough coal for its own lequiremcnts, and it had to' go Australia. The Government of Australia took up this position: that if we wanted coal wo must bo propared to let them have timber. They must have our timber.' Mr. Singleton: Is that why they put a duty on' itP Mr. Massey: "I noticed that duty the other day. I think they, must bo in need of the money." Mr. Massey continued that-eighteen months ago, when there was an agitation for the stoppage of the export of white pine to Australia, the Australian authorities told the New Zealand Government that they wanted white pine, aud that if we did not givo it to them they would not give us any coal.' We must have coal and we must import it from Australia, and tho fessels bringing it must havo a back freight from New Zealand. Export Already Controlled. Timber was exported from New Zealand only under permit, and much of tho timber oxported was- not building timber at all.. For instance, for the nine months ended March 31 last, the Board of Trade calculated that thevo might be exported from the Dominion 22 million' feot of rinvn and five million feet of kauri. The quantity of riinu actually exported in that period was 7,500,000 feet, and in six months three million feet of kauri. He did not blow' whether it would be possible to prohibit export altogether. So far as he personally was concerned he would be quite willing to do it, but the Government had to tako other conditions into consideration, audi these were the conditions he had mentioned.' For some reason or another, too, there was a shortage of shipping to bring timber from the West Coast to Wellington. Indeed, there was a "shortage of shipping all round tho coast. . / - Shipping Questions. Mr. Rend suggested that this circumstance afforded an excellent opportunity for a Stato shipping service, similar to the Australian venture. Mr. Massoy said he knew the history of the Statc_6hipping ventures in Australia, and they were not attractive. Tho Commonwealth had : bought a number of ships at an opportune time, and these ships had been of. great service in carrying Home the Australian wheat, in this way the venture had been a splendid speculation to the Commonwealth. A member of the deputation suggested that New Zealand might buy American scows for the carriage of timber. Mr. Massey said that he could not recommend the people of New Zealand to put their money into American-built ships such as were used for the carriage of timber from the Pacific ports to New Zenland. Ho admitted, however,- that when there was a shortage of shipping it was the duty of the Government to put things right as quickly ns possible. But he was of opinion, in view of tho amount of building going on,that in a few years the world would have' more shipping than it needed, and that freights would 'come down. Tho Board of Trade had impressed upon him one important fact: mat the production of timber during the past twelve months had been greater than at any time previous in the history of the Dominion. This proved that there was ri tremendous, amount of building going on. His information was that for the present the export of building timber had practically ceased. He agreed with the remarks of one of the speakers that our timber resources had been used most wa-stefully in the pnst. The kauri timber grown in the far north, (ind the timber still growing on the West Const, was the best.crop that land'would, ever produce.-, Unessential' Building, ■ As to ' the proposal that the Government should stop unessential building in'order that all available resources in labour and material should be concen tiated for the building of houses, • the Government had already by legislation taken power to do this. The power had to be brought into operation by Order-in-Council. The matter was at present on the Cabinet schedule of business, and it might be dealt with this week. The only possibility of further delay was on account of the fact that a number pf the Ministers were away from Wellington, nnd the remainder.might not care to deal with such- an important matter in their absence. His own opinion was that residences were more urgently required than any other class of buildings. Some buildings were needed for manufactures, and he did not think that the Government could well stop them, but there were other buildings that might stand over. / Mr. Singleton: Racecourse grandstands can wait a little longer.' Mr. Massey: "Judging by present appearances there is a possibility of sportsmen in New Zealand having to do without racing for some time to'come, arid in that case will not be wanted. Mv friend is quite right in any case." He went on to say that the Government could not possibly supply all. the buildings necessary to meet this shortage.' The Government had '210 houses under construction already, a great number of them in Wellington. Mr. Singleton: It is problematical when they will be finished. They will not be finished for three years. Mr. Massey said that he was informed by the Department that some of them would be ready in three months. Cabinet had agreed the other day to an additional 500 houses. Local bodies had been encouraged to build houses, and he believed that'some of-them had taken up this work. Private individuals were not building so freely as they had been prior to the war. fie hoped that more private building would be undertaken. Duty on Oregon Pine. As to the. proposal for the remission of the duty on imported timber, the Government had not yet taken this into consideration. He was of opinion that we Sot very little imported building timber in this country. .He could assure the I deputation that tho Government realised the difficulty of the position as much as the members of the deputation,-and was just as anxious to meet it. Tho proposals made would be brought before Cabinet early, 1 probably this week. He could promise, at any rate, that they would be dealt with in tho near future. A member of the deputation said that it was of importance that the duty should be taken off Oregon pino, which ivas a' useful building timber, better than most of tho timber now being used in liouse construction. The 0.8. timber if commerce was not timber at all nowudsivs, but immature wood or sap. The houses built of it would not last ten years, and then they would bo a further diaree on the community.