SAWDUST QUESTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1926, Page 1

SAWDUST QUESTION.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Please allow me a little space to enter a protest against tlie move the Fisheries'Department is facing the sawmiller with. First, J. would like to ask these people if they have ever found a trout killed by sawdust in the Hokitkia River. I beg to claim that they have not, and until they can prove that they have I cannot for the life of me, see how they can claim power to prevent sawdust being put in the river, as this must be the only grounds upon which they can prove that the sawdust is detrimental to them. Speaking from experience T have seen trout live in a stream no larger than that which a No. 3.centrifugal pump could make—a stream taking all the sawdust away from a mill cutting 4,000 feet per day and the trout lived to within half a mile of the mill. These trout lived till the stream stopped running and the water become stagnant. T can at the present time, take any person who disclaims mv statement to a river not as large as the Hokitika, where a number of fairly large mills are cutting and where all the sawdust is going into the river. One mill, as an instance, stands on the hank of the river and right under where the sawdust is carried into ft. large trout can be seen. 1 have seen them year after year. This is what T have seen in tlie Hokitika river: I have seen trout killed with sand and strewn along the sand banks after a flood hut never yet found them killed with sawdust in a running river. Sawdust is a curse, a danger with fire and a cost around a mill if it cannot be carried away with water. From the fact that mills are closing down rather than reduce prices proves that the miller can not he faced with more costs and cannot Toduce prices. Apart from that, it means that hundreds of others are thrown out of work.

I appeal to all timber workers to assist their employers by way of preventing any more costs in connection with the production of timber, for the simple reason that cost has its limit in any industry, and the more that is involved in costs apart from wages (your own) the less you yourselves are likely to get by way of wages. I am, etc., SUPPLEJACK.