The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1910. THE SAWMILL INDUSTRY.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 March 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1910. THE SAWMILL INDUSTRY.

Thuough hope deferred, many sawmillers are sick at heart just now, but it is fair to bid them hope on. Their groat disappointment dates from the closing week of the last Parliamentary session, when it was announced by the Premier that the Government had decided to postpone until next session the introduction of any legislation embodying the recommendations of the Timber Commission. After the lengthy sittings of the Commission, and the further lapse of time while its members were debating upon the form of their report and the scope of their recommendations sawmillers naturally expected that there would be no further delays. But they did not know Parliament and its methods!. There is an. unfortunate disposition in Parliament to talk lengthily about unimportant matters for the first two months of a session, and then to try to dispose of three months' important

usiness in the course of three reeks. In what way the remedy or this cause of trouble is to be ecured we have not enough assurnce to say, off-hand, but as a entative remedy we would suggest hat if the New Zealand Legislaiiire would meet at 4.30 o'clock in -he afternoon, and sit again from '.30 to 11 p.m., for six or eight nonths in the year, the present anmal jettison of important measures, and the deplorable postponements of matters of great urgency, vould be far less in number. There i ire Australian States which do so with satisfactory results. A source of some comfort to millers is the imporvement recorded in the building trade by the Labour Journal agencies at various centres. Though Wellington and Dunedin report nothing very brisk in the building line, the Christchurch agent states that carpentering "still" keeps fairly busy; also other branches of the building trades. At Auckland, all sawmills are reported to be working full time. The future prospect at Gisborne is good, with carpentry and joinery still busy; and Patea, Wangivnuli, Taihape, Greymouth and Oamarn <are almost equally brisk-, though' there are several other big districts in which the building trades are slack. But is means little good for New Zealand sa-wmillers if the carpenters are busy with oversea woods; and. alas, that is often the actual case. New Zealand, with timber enough to suffice her needs for many, many years, is allowing her sawmilling industry to be killed by the unfair "dumping" practices of North American sawmilIcrs, who sell the bulk of their produce profitably in their own land, but "dump" the residue in New Zealand and Australia, at absolutely unprofitable rates. There is no adequate defence that can he set up for the toleration of such practices as these. On the broad questions of Freetrade and Protection there is room for serious argument and wide differences of opinion, but in this side'issue (and important though it is, it remains simply a side issue) the broad questions do not enter. For good or bad. New Zealand is bound so firmly and so extensively to a protectionist policy that the necessity of administering the policy fairly for all sections of trade and commerce has become an absolute duty of Parliament. The dweller in the country is bound, under the Customs tariff, to help to keep in iiood case the operative bootmaker and the manufacturing tailor, and the maker of blankets, and a score of other tradesmen, whose callings are arlificially bolstered up. A few of the protected industries are to be found in the country districts but in most cases they are purely city ventures. Now, when a genuine country industry like sawmilling is lk'in<r throttled -we use the word advisedly—there is pressing need for the city members of Parliament, on behalf of their conr'ituents, to unite with the country members in granting some re-cipvr.'-al benefits of protection to a great national industry which is so cl'j'.e'v associated with purely oouutrv interests. An effective tariff rgainst the Oregon timber product Is a necessity, and it should be made one of the earliest measures '.-it: -iduced to Parliament when next it assembles. That the movement in favour of Oregon importations Irs not been departed from by ir.ter'sted parties is to some extent fliown by the following inspired c: mment which we cull from a fin: h ; :i1 journal which expatiated qui'e recently upon the condition o!' affairs in Stewart Island ■and vl"i •ity:-"Practicallv all thpine that thi.se firms bring to market e:;iiles from LoilgWOod, W.li-k-'wa, Viagara. and .Stewart Island. Naturally, as the felling g( '.'• on, the cr'tTs have ta push further back, and one may supp :e. seeing the increasing difficulty and expense of procuring the native timber, that if the amalgamation takes place the new concern will before long go in also for importing the foreign article." The ingenuousness of the suggestion that because these circumscribed localities will be cut out of tiaiber some day it will be necessary to get the next lot from a place eight <.r ten thousands miles away is too absurd to need rebuttal.