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Hokitika Guardian, 26 May 1921, Page 2

Tiif, amount of Customs Duty collected for the past year was over £8,400,000 against £4,800,000 for the previous year. It is generally recognised that imports will shortly shrink, so that the Government is not likely to get anywhere near that amount this year. Further, as ihe result of financial stringency and substantial depreciation of commercial stocks and prolits, tile amount received m Income Tax will be considerably minced in the current year. Unless the authorities are able io eilvct a drastic Tetienchniont of expenditure, which seems duubtlul, m view ot the prospective depiction m revenue from ihe two mentioned sources, a curious situation will develop. Will fho Massey Government, asks a North Island paper, turn to the land tax in order to make up the required revenue;*' They will be terribly hard pushed before they resort to this. It would create a mutiny in the ranks of their most useful supporters. Wait and sije! Rut we shall wait a long time and see very little, we opine. The land tax received to March 31st was only £1,600,000 odd against £1,557,903 for the same period last year. Tlq. increase from this largely untapped source is paltry. By its delay in making revaluations, in some cases twelve years since previous valuation, the Government has lost thousands of pounds of revenue. If thes e had been completed during the past two years, when money was free, no complaints would have been heard. Now in the condition ot prices for our products and the financial tightness the revaluations will be met with violent objections. The drop in the price of primary products is reported to have caused big losses to many men who bought land at peak prices. Until toward the end of the period of land speculation no words of warning were uttered by the authorities to discourage it. How could they when their friends were prospering by selling out. Then the Government purchase of improved estates added fuel to the flames, and was one of the chief causes of inflated land values.

Qn the scientific side in regard to research work in particular, the Forestry Department might accomplish a great deal of good, and it can be done very inexpensively too. Mr Entrican to whose recoin lecture we referred yesterday, was more at home in dealing witli the science of his subject, than pi trying to tell the millers and consumers how they were to carry on their • trading relations in defiance of the law i-of supply and demand. In his Wel- ' lington address the lecturer reviewed briefly the investigations of the State Forest Service into the mechanical properties of New Zealand timber, the results of which, lie thought, would he of value to engineers, manufacturers, and other wood-using industries ill enabling them to employ the various spe- ■ cies and grades most advantageously j and frequently to subtitute less wellknown species for those which had been commonly used, but which were becoming scarce. “It is to be favourably commented upon,” he said, “that the service is also investigating the question of planting suitable pole timbers, j a scarcity of which is likely to arise i in the next few years. Even with the : low price of steel, it still seems that the wood pole is about twice as cheap.” Anothe study of great interest was that covering the preservative and seasoning treatments of timbers. Two factors had combined to binder the utilisation of many New Zealand’s secondgrade woods—low durability and difficulty of seasoning, but these might both be overcome bv proper treatment. ‘‘Within the near future it is hoped to see all these species and forms employed in the most economical fashion ! possible,” said Mr Entrican. The problem of utilising the enormous wastage in the sawmilling industry amounting to some 15,000,000 cubic feet annually was presented as one of paramount importance. Various suggestions as to waste disposal by chemical and mechanical methods were made and discussed at the conclusion of the lecture. Prae tical demonstrations affecting the reearch woifk might do something to appease public opinion ip regard to the

claim for valuable work on behalf of th e Department So* far ns the present outdoor work of the foresters has revealed itself, the whole system seems to be costly and cumbersome to a degree offering very little return for the staggering cost which must be involved to keep the steadily growing staff in motion. And the feeling here is not singular. We hear from Nelson, and other quarters that grave concern is now being felt in regard to the great cost the country is being saddled with under the forestry regime.