The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY MARCH 11, 1927. IGNORING OUR GREATEST ASSET.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY MARCH 11, 1927. IGNORING OUR GREATEST ASSET.

Tin-: stoles of timher in Westland are our greatest asset—present and futuie. 13itt is is not being used as it should—either commercially or economically. ,\ud the lolk stand by allowing tbo non use and misuse .to prevail. The public indifference to the plight of the timber industry would be amusing where the cii'ect not s) tragic. A writer in a northern paper puts th* present position as follows: ‘•There is an element of sardonic humour in the fact that while we ar« urged to help ourselves by buying New Zealand goods and then support home industries, reduce unemployment and keep Xew Zealand money circulating in New Zealand, there should Ihi a door left open through which a steady stream of the precious moneys Hows into a foreign country. Until duty is imposed on American timber the constantly increasing quantity imported will represent a complete the disastrous loss, and not only is this a loss to the millers alone, hut also to the community as a whole.”

Taking the community loss first there is reason enough to lie agitated, and it is well that some organisation is afoot to remedy matters. The position of the millers in many instances must be serious, and the situation is now so general that it has become a national subject. Unfortunately the matter is not going to he remedied readily or easily, but a beginning must lie made somewhere, and until that takes shape the drift in the meantime is serious. So far as the Westland public is concerned. they should have had warning enough as to the trend of affairs. The situation ns it promised to develop was oxnosed and expounded long years ago through these columns, and unfortunately what was predicted has been allowed to come to pass. Now. as to a remedy ! What can be done ? A writer in the Auckland Star in considering the proposed tariff harrier says that it is argued that no industry must he favoured at the cost of the general public. That is certainly true, hut it is a matter calling for

urgent reform that the second mostimp.riant industry, and the one laying (he largest sum in wages per annum should he left to struggle uuaid- ,,,| gainst deadly and destructive 10r-,.i-Mt coiitnct it ion. while every little secondary industry in the Dominion is carefully fostered and encouraged by prolcciive tttfill’s. The sawmill owners will not he the only ones to hcnelit by a dill v imposed on imported timber. A

few weeks ago in one small group ol Kim- Count rv mil's where 3('d men are normally employed 1 75 w.n- di-mi-.-ed. and I lie remainder arc only working live days a week, and sime then more

men have been put oil. When it is realised that this state of affairs is ruling throughout the limber industry it, is obvious that an exi ra burden bits keen added to the unemployment wliteh is such a problem in New /calami lodav. While Ametiean timber can be imported at. a cheaper rate than .7' v Zealand timber can he put on the market thete will be mi demand for the latter, and the million- of feet ol D.R. timber stacked in mill yards all through the eountiy represent a terrific Imhoth 10 the millers and the tkivernmeut. The only New Zealand crown limber now saleable is heari timber, the demand for which eanimi l,e met. I' nfnrt nnalely. afler centuries of growth our ualttral I'oresl s ha ve only IA per cent, of heari M odor. To get this, 37) per cent-, "f each tree has to be discarded, and it is certniidv a ease of colossal and wanton waste, unparalleled in the hi-ioi\ of ike country. If the O.R. timber were useless for building purposes il Would still he a calamity, hut that is far from being the case. Despite the prejudice against it in some qmillets it is excellent for all building purposes, ami there are numberless houses all through Ihe mill areas built entirely of 0.11. timber that have, unaided, even ky a coat, of paint, w ithstood ihe ravages of 30 years of rain and sun. The

argument given prominence by lho.se lighting the imposition nl duly on lorejgn timber is tbni such a dutv will most materially increase the price of building. Were the price of limbei the largest, expense in the erection of a house this might be a serious mailer, but the actual timber used, represents one-sixth of the total cos! of the building, ll is difficult to see, even if tbe price of timber increases a little, how the whole cost of building would lie seriously nlieeted. 1 lie genera! opinion is that, with cheap \ntericnXi limber available, linnies are cheaper to build. It is only (luring me past two years that I here have boon heavy importations of American timber, and therefore the question naturally arises as to whether the cost ol building has decreased during tbe past Iwo vears. As is well-known, ii lias not. One interesting illustration can lie given. The conl.rael price for the erection of a small building in l’aliuersioii Ninth, built in nccoiilaiieo with their strict by-laws, and entirely of New Zealand timber, uas L'l'-’ b This did not include the cost of a chimney. The timher supplied included joinery, three doors, easement windows and sashes, weather hoarding, llooring. lining and

sacking, and the total price of the timber amounted to £2B. The paintintr and plumbing came to C 27. II icertainlv unnecessary to emphasise The

fact that it is not the price ol New Zealand timber that prevents the public front building their own homos, fn one group alone ibe stock of 0.11. held by six mills amounted to fi.OOO.ODO feet of stacked timber. Ii that timber could be disposed of the Railway Department would collect much in freight, tt must be remembered that'practically no revenue is received from imported timber, for it is all abs rbed in the

port cities, thereby representing n dead loss of thousands a year to a Department badly in need of every available pennv of revenue. Few people realise tbe enormous extent of revenue that the Government collects from the milling industry. For every 10A toot of timber railed from a North Island district’ to Auckland the freight is Gs. and the Government servants do not handle a stock of timber: the royalties payable on Government bus'll range from 4s to Gs per 100 feet. 'lbis moans that a charge front 10s to 12s per 100 foot has to be mot on all Timber milled from Government bush, and this 12s goes to the people of New Zealand Qf course,

all timber is not cut from Government bush, but following the precedent set them private owners naturally raise their royalties to correspond.