The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast limes. MONDAY, JANUARY 25th, 1920. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast limes. MONDAY, JANUARY 25th, 1920. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

In a contributed article on h riday last a writer set forward very clearly bow the timber industry was menaced by importations and the lack of Government consideration in regard to the welfare of the trade. There is no other industry in New Zealand receiving such little, consideration as the sawmilling industry, yet it is one of the largest employing agencies and the greatest- wage-paying concerns in the Doinnion. Ihcse facts are not new locally. They have been reiterated over and over again, hut they have 1 failed to claim the attention of the powers that be. In the Government there has been a' “set,” as it were, against the industry, despite the fact that officials in various departments have been stressing the importance of the matter. ‘Now that, there is a change in the control of the Forestry Department, the time might be opportune to seek for amends. Certainly local bodies and organisations on the Coast interested in the public welfare of tlie district, might well associate themselves to agitate for the betterment of the industry, at the hands of the Government. The review of the position as set out in the contributed article last Friday supplies a very fair basis on which to found representations. In the light of facts and figures to he found in the Govornniont blue hook as to the importance of the industry commercially and industrially there is every reason why the Government should step in and do what it pan to maintain a volume of trade and business of such wide importance throughout the country. It would appear that the forestry policy .generally should he reviewed from time to time. We notice the farmers are strong enough always to make the 00-ernment review any position which is considered harmful to their pursuits and production. The farmers have forced the position in regal'd to control in various directions, and only last week the wheat growers secured their way in reference to the sale of their commodity. If the snwmillers could achieve, something similar in the direction of their vending trade, there would soon he a very difficult complexion placed on the milling industry—affording more employment and bringing more money into the country. For reasons founded on faddish views, the economic aspect of the timber trade is being sacrificed. The position is such that the matter should he gone into very intimately. Now that a lead is given, as indicated by the contributed article referred to. there is warrantry for local action to support what promises to be a more influential move than has yet been made to focus public interest- and attention oil the welfare of the timber industry. If such is the true position, then action should be prompt and united.