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Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1920, Page 2

At the Returned Soldiers’ .Conference : at Wellington last week questions affecting tho short:!go of houses were dis.

cussed, when the Auckland branch submitted a x-oiuit to the effect that in the opinion of the conference the present shortage of house property, the excessive prices thereof, and the slackness! of building operations were largely the direct result of the wholesale exportation of buitdong timber by most of the large timber corporations through out New Aualand. '1 lie remit sug-' gested that the Government be urged to stop such, exportation and commandeer all available building material for the erection of homes. A very fail- explanation of the position was given by ouo of the. soldiers present, Mr J. D Harper, Wellington, stated that he knew something about the timber business. The mills 1 on the West Coast had 3,000,_ UOO to 4,000,000 feet of timber on the skids for shipment to . New Zealand ports, but they could not get space to remove the timber. Unless that timber was removed the mills would have to close down. It was not altogether the fault of tlio miller that there was a shortage of timber for building purposes in Now Zealand. During the war period the building of homes was practically at a standstill ,nud this shortage had to he caught up. His own company had over- a quarter of a million feet awaiting shipment to 'the Wellington wharves in Die last six weeks, space had been allotted at Greymouth, and then, at the last moment, the space had to be reserved for coal, the difficulties iu respect to which were real. Recent, ly the West Coast millers had 3,000,000 feet of tibmer for export to Australia, but they had offered to ship it to New Zealand ports it space could bo found for it. The space, However, could not he found. A good deal of the timber that was being shipped to Australiawas not fit to build houses with, ibe remit was rather unfair to the sawmillers, for it blamed them for the timber shortage. The point was that the timber was there-—as far as Greymoutb was concerned the millers were anxious to move it. He submitted that it was not a matter of restricting the export of timber—it was a question of gettin-r space in ships. Another tiling that had to jxe remembered was that many sawmills and bush workers had not resumed their former occupations after returning from the war, and a good many inexperienced men had been taken on in their stead. This had had a serious effect on the output of the timber. Over and over again the timber interests had been promised more shipping space but they could not get it in the end. In the discussion which followed, Mr D. M’Burney, (Te Awamutu) considered that there was a timber monopoly at work in this country. Mi E. F. Andrews, (Bay of Plenty), said that sawmills in the Auckland district absolutely refused to take on new clients. !He had been informed that last year 9,o(>ofoooft. of first-class timber was exported to Australia. Numbers of returned soldiers wanted secondclass timber for the erection of their farm buildings, and it Wits evident that while there was any sort of shortage the export of timber should be prohibited. Mr N. A.,Ching, (Waikato) said the economic aspect of the matter had to he considered. They had to remevn. her that if the export of timber to Australia were stopped, it might be impossible to obtain supplies of jarrah in return, and then the eobstruction of many works, such as railway bridges, would be held up in the Dominion. The remit was can'ied.