TIMBER CRISIS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1930, Page 8

TIMBER CRISIS

STR ANG L.I NG IND USTR V. That the timber industry in tins 'Dominion can be made a large and permanent one', employing many thousands of workers, is the opinion of .the saw-millers in the King Country and on the Rotorua liHo Rut, according to information gleaned by an. “Auckland Star” rennesentutive, past and present methods of dealing with it are all in favour of strangling the mills and encouraging foreign imuortations.

“There is the political factor also,” said a prominent sawmill owner, when discussing the subject. “The Reform Government did not help the timber industry. Tt built State mills, which competed with private enterprise, and railway freights were increased on timber while they were lowered on farm products and fertilisers. But both are products of the' soil.. The farmers are giving employment to much, less labour than the timber industry. At present about 80 per cent, of the:cost of producing timber goes in labour, and tlie men who benefit by the employment are those in the backblocks, where they have been pioneers in settling bush lands. It is the very fact of the stability of the backblock timber workers that has kept them free from taking part or assisting in strikes. /That fact has been fully appreciated by the employers.

SADDLED WITH BURDEN’S. “The timber industry lias been paddied with so many burdens and restrictions at various times that it is just an tlm verge of collapse,” he cnntjyn.wi “|k j s ;ill very well to tulle of building up industries to give work for unemployed; but it deserves first consideration to hold together an industry now in existence. Its continuance is of vital importance to the working of forestry plantations, and there is no inducement for private companies to plant trees with the, present outlook.”

Rccenty, Mr Odlin, chairman of the Timber Merchants’ Association, stated that he could not see the possibility of cheaper timber. being introduced in New Zealand, said another prominent member of tlie Sawmillers’ Federation. “Well T entirely disa'To with him. To-day most of the mills in New Zealand are working; half-time, and that-is the greatest, handicap to cheap production. Foreign importations are responsible for that state of affairs, New Zealand mills have he-m loaded up with stocks even when there wor° great demands for timber. Even last year the amount of foreign soft w f, od which came into this conntrv rmresened an increase »f 4.000,1100 fcM.. There is no inistak'in" the fact that any boom in timber mpiironients as things are at present will b n one foe the foreign article and not to Dominion mills.”

DOMINION TIMBER. PUSHED OUT

“In a recent statement the Commissioner of State Forests /the Hon. W. B. Taverner) expressed the hone that more New Zealand timber would fie sold in Australia in place of Scandinavian and North American products,” said Mr G. A. Gamman, the well-known Ohakune and Mamaku mill owner, when approached for his opinion. “To compete with those timbers in Australia that from New Zealand would be still further saddled with Gs steamer freight. Yet on account of present high railway freights, we ure nnivbl© to compete with those very same foreign importations here. There is not the slightest doubt that New Zealand timbers are gradually Ibut surely being pushed out in favour of the imported article. Tt is a. well-known fact, that our timbers are among the finest in the world for building, purposes, and yet there are millions upon millions of feet stacked away in mills all over the Dominion with no sale lor it. In our mill at Mamaku alone there is a total of over 2,000.000 ft stacked, and we can’t'sell a foot of it. Railway freight and other charges have made sales prohibitive.”