SAWMILLERS’ CONFERENCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9340, 8 January 1909, Page 8

SAWMILLERS’ CONFERENCE.

MILLS TO BE CLOSED. THE OREGON PINE BOGEY. Per Press Association. Palmerston N., Janaary 8. There were sawmilling representatives present at the Conference held in Palmerston yesterday from Auckland, West Coast (South Island), Rangitikei, Wairarapa, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay. The meeting was not open to tke press and lasted sax hours. Interviewed at the close of the proceed ibgs a prominent miller said they would close the mills down indefinitely as the result of the meeting which was the most representative gathering of sawmillers ever held here, and probably ever held in New Zealand. There were fnlly 300 mills represented, averaging 20 men each. The Conference was held to consider the advisability of re-opening some closed mills, but as the result of the discussion it is considered that fully fifty mills will close indefinitely, affecting at a modest estimate fully 1000 men, and the output of other mills will be restricted The main factors in the decision were the wholesale ’ importation of Oregon pine, and the general stringency of the money market. It was suggested that Government should fix a dimension tariff as one solution of the difficulty, and also make the import duty on Oregon pine the same as the export duty on.white pine and kauri.