TIMBER SUPPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 137, 7 December 1938, Page 15

TIMBER SUPPLIES

REPORTED CLOSING OF ■■..•■.:■ . mills

APPEAL BY THE MINISTER

The importance of maintaining supplies of timber was emphasised by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) today, when referring to reports from Invercargill that it was the intention of a number of sawmillers to close from December 9 ■ until.after the New Year.

The Minister expressed the view that if these reports correctly indicated the proposals of the sawmillers, some hundreds of mill workers who had rendered good service and been loyal to their employers throughout the year would suffer the hardship of • losing a much-needed fortnight's wages at a time when it would be most appreciated by them. Futhermore, it would deprive them of the paid holidays on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and NewYear's Day, to which they would otherwise be entitled under the Factories Act.

"Apart from these personal considerations concerning the sawmillers* treatment of their employees during the festive season," continued the-Min-ister, "I would emphasise that-there is in New Zealand at the present time a marked shortage of seasoned timber, and the closing down of .the mills for a fortnight - would accentuate the shortage and create a further difficulty in the way of supplying the people of New Zealand with the houses that, are so much needed. On hearing of the report about the proposed closing of the mills on December 9,1 got in toucl> with the Housing Construction Department, which reports that the builders are frequently in difficulties about securing supplies of dried timber and that instead of seasoning at the mill a large number of millers are selling only green and on trucks./I was informed further that the Department of Housing Construction had been urged on several recent occasions by a number of builders to specify brick veneer or some other method of construction on account of the difficulty of obtaining; well-seasoned timber. Sawmillers will appreciate, therefore, that by closing down tha source of supply of timber for a y fortnight they would be creating conditions possibly not helpful to their own future market. Certainly it would be difficult to maintain insistence on the utilisation of timber if it were a fact that sawmillers were, refusing to accumulate stocks for drying purposes.'. Mr. Armstrong added that in. v!#w of the importance which he attached to the matter, both from the point of view of the sawmill workers and from the other aspects mentioned, he had communicated by telephone to Marton with Mr. Bush, the president of the Dominion Sawmillers* Association, and Mr. Bush had undertaken to communicate with sawmillers urging them not to close before the holidays. "I strongly support the appeal which Mr. Bush is making," concluded Mr. Armstrong.