IMPORTED TIMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1926, Page 7

IMPORTED TIMBERS

OPINIONS ON PROTECTIVE ,;:,, TARIFF EFFECT ON NEW ZEALAND • INDUSTRY .CEDAR AND OREGON FOR BUILDINGS. (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. Refetring to the Government tariff :" on-imported timbers, Mr. W. B. Leyland, of Leyland, O'Brien, Ltd., said that-if the Government found it neces--7 sary for revenue purposes to impose a duty on Oregon there was no reason ' "why the duty should not bo charged on cedar which was used for building pur-"■-poses.' The imposition of a duty on - • cedar would not restrict importations, ""as, owing to tho shortage of heart tim'ber'iri New Zealand for weather-boards, ''it would bo necessary to continue importing. . . • Oregon was being imported in m- " creasing quantities owing to tho dimin- " "ishing' output of kauri, which in twenty '": years, said Mr.'Leyland, speaking with- " out referring to data, had fallen from ' 200,000,000 feet per year to probably v not more than 20,000,000 feet a year. 'Again, it was necessary to import """weather-boarding owing to the very * 'small 'proportion of heart timber de- " rived from tho average, rimu log. It was probable that the amount of clean or building heart in a. log did not ex-ceed-17 per cent. ..,'.; Mr. Leyland said that ho was in fay- • ■, ..our of the imposition of an extra duty • -: on small sizes. Oregon cut from young •■-'trees was. very open in grain and was •-usually ver" knotty. If the importa..■tion of Oregon and cedar were prohibit...d.some of tho wood-working factories in Auckland ,would bo seriously affect^ ed as owing to the shortage of kauri "•and heart rimu fit for joinery work -<• 'upwards of 50 per cent, of men employ- -•- ed would have no timber to work with. : Some ..of the' building. regulations tight be relaxed to allow of tho use in houses of rimu, which, while it might not be heart timber, was yet quite suit-able-'f or such use. Approval of the action of the Government in imposing a duty of 2s per 100 superficial feet on rough-sawn cedar is expressed by the Auckland sawmillmg and timber importers. The approval was limited to that extent, however, and there was a division of opinion as to whether the protective tariff should, be imposed on certain clasess of imported timber which are used extensively in --. New Zealand, r From the Auckland \branch of the' Farmers' Union comes • -objection to any tariff on timbers, and representations on the subject have been made^t*;the Government. GOVBKNIVIENT CRITICISED. ... "The Government should have gone into the question, and done it pro- ; porly," said Mr. W. M'Arthur, of the Selwyn Timber Company. "In my '.. opinion,, this amendment is only a sop to put off consideration of the representations of the timber industry until '"next-session. We suggested'to. the Gov- .■■■■■ crnment that the duty on large timber ■ • should be reduced, and that it should •••_■...be. increased with respect to small tim- •: . ber.. . The effect of this would bo to re- ::•:■; strict :the importation of small stuff. -' Largo timbers would have to be re-cut „.; jii New Zealand, thus providing more „-,-..' -employment. Moreover, we can get - ernte out of large logs than the Amcri- ... jjan.miners." '" ' Mr. _.!_' Arthur said that the imported '" iSedar was used chiefly for weather- - • boards and for shingles, and it was only .*."..'••■ jiniing the past three years: that; the- ••'■ ttrice-of the timber had come down to' a sufficient extent to allow of its use for such'purposes. He said that cedar did • not compete with New Zealand-grown • • 'timber to the same extent as did Ore- -■ <-gon, because cedar was a high-grade "■•- -timber, whereas most of the Oregon ■- was of a low grade. "We can quite easily sell our high-grade article. Oregon costs just as much as New Zealand . low-grade timber, which is equally suit- ' able'fox the work for which Oregon is - nsed." *