CAUSES OF TIMBER TRADE DEPRESSION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 157, 23 September 1927, Page 9

CAUSES OF TIMBER TRADE DEPRESSION

DEMAND AND PRODUCTION (TUB BUN'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Thursday. Causes of the depression in the New Zealand timber industry are outlined m the report of the Tariff Commission, which states that it would bo uneconomic for the tariff to aim at the maintenance of the existing rate of production.

In the commission’s opinion, the causes are: Reduced demand for buildin? timl>er; higher production in recent years, indicated by the increased number of mills and employees: reduced demand :!or export; the increased use of wallbonrd as a substitute for timber; th© relatively high cost of production in some of the more recently established mills: higher wages; and increased importations. Depression was more acute in the indications being the closing of mills as a result of the slow sale of timber, the working of short time and with reduced hands, a falling:-off in the sales of New Zealand timber, the accumulation of stocks, and the reduction of prices and sales effected below them in some districts.

An appreciable reduction in the demand for building timbers in Auck*and is noted, but there is a lack of evidence of a decline in Wellington. In s Pitj of this, millers’ price lists for the Auckland district show no very marked fall, although some reductions w ere made in September, 1926.