TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 160, 25 November 1926, Page 6

TIMBER INDUSTRY.

COMPARED WITH DAIRYING Statistics Challenged. The accuracy of figures set out on a graph with the object of emphasising the importance of the timber industry to New Zealand has been challenged by the Auckland Chamber of Co mmerce, and the chamber has advised the compilers of the graph, the Dominion Deaerated Sawmillers’ Association, that it cannot accede to a request that the graph should be prominently displayed in the chamber.

Criticism of the graph centres round the statistics comparing the number of men employed in and the wages paid by the timber and dairying industries. The graph says that, in 1925) 10,052 men were employed in the timber industry and 4324 in the manufacture of dairy produce, the wages paid in the same year by the respective industries being £2,286,531 and £881,713.

Concerning these statistics, the chamber has advised the Sawmillers’ Federation that the figures do not give a fair comparison between the dairying industry and the sawmilling industry, inasmuch as the figures for the dairy industry quoted refer only to the factory of production of butter, cheese and similar products. There are : over 60,000 persons engaged in the primary stage of manufacture of dairy products.

“In any case,” the letter continues, “the wages paid or the number of employees is not a fair indication of the importance of an industry to the Dominion, as the importance of labour relatively to other factors in production varies so much from industry to industry. The best measure of the relative importance on industries is probably » that to be found in the Year Book, * where all associated industries are grouped. Here the importance of the timber industry is shown to be just one-eleventh that of industries connected with farming.” The chamber also challenges the accuracy of the figures used on the graph in connection with wages distributed ' in the New Zealand timber industry • and the money sent out of the coun- ! try for timber imports, the graph be- I ing designed to show “how the Do- 1 minion’s principal industry is menaced by imports. 9 9 1 “It is fallacious,” the chamber sayS,.j “to compare wages paid in the New Zealand timber industry with the value of timber imported, since wages paid represent only 40 per cent., of the total value of the product.

“In view of these criticisms it would seem that the conclusions of the federation are scarcely justified. If the people of New Zealand are importing more and more timber, and this is not challenged, it is simply because the price of New Zealand timber has been rising more rapidly than that of imported timber. 9 * The chamber furthe'r suggests that the recent adverse balance of trade has been due not so much to an increase in the volume of imports as to the fact that export prices generally have’ been falling more rapidly than import prices.