SHORTER WEEK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 41, 11 May 1927, Page 3

SHORTER WEEK

Four Hundred Mill Hands To Receive Less Money

SLACKNESS IN TIMBER TRADE

i ,? lve hundred pounds per week will be cut off Auckand s spending- power through the decision of three large imber concerns to shorten working hours on account of the slackness of trade. It is asserted that severe building regulations stipulating heart timber for the outside of all wooden structures are partly responsible for the stagnation, and an effort is to be made to have the by-laws relaxed.

The concerns affected by the shortening of working hours are the Kauri Timber Company, the Leyland-OBrien Timber Company and the ParkerLamb Company, which between them carry about 400 men. The reduction in wages over this number will mean something like 30s less per week per man.

Work is to be stopped by two of the companies on Fridays and Saturdays, but in the meantime Leyland-O’Brien, on account gf their shipping commitments, are shutting down on Saturday mornings only. Mr. W. B. Leyland stated this morning that the companies could not carry on under present conditions. It was a case of either shortening staffs drastically, or else of reducing the working hours. They had adopted the latter course because they had not wanted to discriminate among their men, or cause further unemployment. HUGE STOCKS ACCUMULATED He pointed out that huge stocks of timber were being accumulated in Auckland. There was not as much building as there had been, and moreover, the regulations against the use of 0.8., or second class, New Zealand timber had resulted in the introduction of more imported timber. Auckland city had led the way in the introduction of legislation that was threatening to kill the New Zealand timber trade —that was, the by-law-compelling the use of only heart timber for outside finish and foundations. In the South such a by-law was unknown, and it was unnecessary here. Heart timber had risen in price because 50 per cent, of each log cut in the bush had to be wasted, and on account of the inevitable rise in the price of heart timber imported material had been able to get in. Remedies, which they were endeavouring to have adopted in the interests of the New Zealand timber trade, were a duty on smaller sizes of imported sawn timbers, and a relaxation of the building laws compelling so much 0.8. timber to be wasted. MILLERS NOT BLAMED For once employers and employees in the timber trade are in agreement. Mr. E. Phelan, secretary of the Timberworkers’ Union, endorses Mr. Ley-

land's idea of the measures required to allow the timber trade to survive. Talking to a SUN man this morning, he added that a reduction of the heavy freights charged on New Zealand timbers would further help local millers to compete against importations. He considered some of the imported timbers, such as cedar, which are permitted by the Auckland City Council, to be actually inferior to the New Zealand 0.8. grades, which are forbidden. “Cedar is so soft,” he said, "that one carpenter less is needed on the job when a house is being built of it.” Mr. Phelan said the shortening of working hours in the big Auckland mills was a serious thing for the working community. He asserted that there were now, in the Auckland industrial district, which extends from Taumarunui to North Cape, 1,200 men either out of work or on short time. They had been expecting this latest development for a long time. “I am not blaming the employees in the least,” he added. “They have been very much concerned, and have been hoping against hope that the Government would do something to allow the trade to compete against the imported timbers.”

NOT EFFICIENT

NEW ZEALAND MILLS OVERSEAS MASS PRODUCTION “The reason why imported timber can be placed on the New Zealand market at cheaper rates than the local product is that the American and Canadian industries are working by means of mass production,” said a forestry expert this morning. ‘‘ln the first place,” he said, “New Zealand mills have not the huge areas to work on, but the mills that are suitable for New Zealand areas could be greatly improved by the installation of up-to-date machinery and the introduction of labour-saving methods. ‘‘They cannot hope to place timber on the market at competitive prices with obsolete and inefficient machinery, and such methods as are to be found among many of them to-day,” he concluded.