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Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1926, Page 2

There are signs of an awakening at last in regard to some of the perils of the timber-milling industry. The signs , have come from a quarter where there appears to lie no small influence, and i from folk who have been disposed 1 hitherto to regard the whole subject of the production of timber from the theoretical standpoint, rather than i -from the practical viewpoint. In its annual report the New Zealand Forestry League lays down its 1 policy on the question of timber importation as follows;—“Whilst the League recognises that the importation I of foreign timbers may be generally supposed to increase the life' of our native forests by reducing the consumption of local timbers, what actually happens is that the imported article simply replaces ordinary building timber, which constitutes a small part of the heart and the whole of the sap of the log, and ns this is rendered unsaleable it is largely wasted and thrown into the slab heap. The demand for heart timber being steadily maintained, it follows that a larger number of trees are felled annually, and a much smaller percentage of the log is used for trade purposes. The result then is a huge uneconomic waste, and Kite cost of milling the heart timber is considerably increased. The League therefore takes up the position that the importation of timber such as western red cedar. Japanese oak, liemloek, and spruce should be discouraged in the interests of the high utilisation of our own forests products.” The conclusions conveyed in the League resolution was certainly well founded, for it is an aspect which has been put forward time and again from the very first of Sir Francis Bell’s restrictive measures on export. The , principal effect of the restricted export was to cut out the waste timbers, that is, waste' in New Zealand, but j for which a market had been built up j in Australia. Sir Francis and those

about him (and the Forestry League ranged in the same strong battalion) could not bo brought to see the evil of the policy which was sponsored, and so for years this loss to the country has been going on. But the Forestry League seems to be taking up a very feeble attitude when it suggests at the close of its long drawn resolution that the importation of cheap oversea timbers should be merely discouraged! How does it propose to discourage the harm it has assisted in doing already? That is not disclosed. But realising that harm is resulting there is perhaps hope that when next the League meets it may propound measures which will deal effectively with the import of timbers (many foreign) which are blocking the market here against the full utilisation of our own commodities. Most other producing countries are hedged in and safeguarded against' outside competition, but not so the sawmilling industry. It is left to its fate, yet it is the greatest employer of labor tbe country lias. Tbe policy of the Dominion, however, is to kill tbe goose that is laying tine golden egg, and some day the nest will be found to be empty-—then will come the real awakening.