Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1920. A TIMBER SHORTAGE!

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1920. A TIMBER SHORTAGE!

It is rather remarkable to read, with bush lands all around us, that New Zealand is suffering from a timber shortage. According to the Dominion of a recent date, the building trade situation is not becoming much brighter as time goes on. In Christchurch a building boom has been nipped in the hud b.V the shortage of material, and the inability to get the timber round from Greymouth. In Auckland district eight timber firms have gone out of business, mainly, it is reported, through inability to get labour for the bush, combined with other difficulties.. Again, a Christchurch firm is stated to have advertised three months for a joiner, and to have had the first applicant on Monday last. Cement and bricks are short everywhere, and much of what building is (being is of inferior quality, with weak unci or —structure and unseasoned timber. The Board of Trade has been inquiring into the state of the timber industry of late, and in the in-

terest «f the thousands of disappointed home-seekers ip the Dominion, says the Wellington paper, some statement is desirable as to the outlook and the necessary steps to be taken to bring demand ,apd supply within “cooee” of each other, A gj.apce pt Hokitika, the wharf apd all adjacent places to the railway line, ip.akee one wonder why there should fit* « .dearth of timber, seeing that here all the waste places are used for the storing of comjnodity which it is impossible to get away.' Seeing that the timber is here, the situation does pot require much enquiry on the part of the Board of Trade to deal effectively with the matter. It isa question simply of supplying the shipping to transport the timber to the required ports for distribution throughout the Dominion. The housing question ip a problem in the centres, but tlu'9 is oply because of the lack of transport meatus, api} the Government could find ways and n\eapf surely of overcoming that barrier. It is pot necessary to eimfiup (the shipping of* .timber to steamers, Timpa >vpr,e when practically the whole of the timber export was in sailing boats. These could l>e utilised again, and to assist in the despatch, sailing craft could be brought into Hokitika and send direct to Lyttelton or Wellington as the ease might be to meet the demand. In connection .with the u&e of sailing ships, it seems remarkable £ha£ Jwa,ts of that type are not used more freely tor ,the transit of white pine to Australia. Craft of the WhfingaroiV build c.quUl be despatched direct front Hokitika to Australian ports, instead of allowing the timber to pile up here and deteriorate in quality and appearance waiting for transhipment by steamer ex-Greymouth. There must be a good deal of waste entaiifed bv the present delay in shipment, and there Sb a serious economic loss through the colonial markets not being regularly supplied. With AUpPvjys kept uliort prices are maintained at ft -level unduly high, and increased cost is put upepi the people. The fact that a building boom at Christchurch has been cut short by the lack of shipping facilities for timber from the Const, at once calls fo mind again the urgent need for the Otic a tunnel to be finished. When that great day thrives Canterbury may have her fill of timber from .the Coast to the great economic gain of Abuse on both sides; of the ranges, and incidentally to the greater earning power of the State railways. The Bogrd of Trade should direct the attention of the Government to this fact, and to the urgent need of finishing the line in a matter of months rather than years. The saving to the country under fhe timber heading alone will be enormous,.