COALS TO NEWCASTLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 631, 6 April 1929, Page 7

COALS TO NEWCASTLE

AHERICAN timber invasion, golden CLOUD’S CARGO » j The folly »♦ carrying coal* to ] Newcastle haa a parallel In the eae* of ■ country that, though I liberally endowed with timber resources of its own, tnaiets on imparting timber from overseae. The illuatration reprinted here of the American freighter Golden Cloud with her decks plied high with timber —ao high that the w ell-deck simply ceases to exist—ouppliea a pointed Illustration of the parallel. VOT for nothing, but because it em- i ' bodies a sound economic priniple. are school children made fami-j lipr with the injunction to refrain from i carting coals to Newcastle. But seemingly the moral of the hoary say- ! ° ng has been lost for the time on New Zealand. The Golden Cloud's freight is only one of many such cargoes that come in in a year, and it explains why a timber industry once flourishing—an industry that did as much as any Other to found the original commercial security of this colony—is nowlanguishing in evil days. The trouble that follows unnecessary imports, especially where, as 1n this case, they produce a conflict with established interests at home, can be traced right through New Zealand timber communities to those only Indirectly concerned with the Industry; »-ho are. In fact, only on the verge of tt. Auckland had Its first glimpse of the severe effects of Importations on local Industry in 1927 when the local millers, tiring of the unequal struggle «-ith overseas concerns backed by almost limitless resources, put their staffs on short time and thus curtailed the spending power of a great number of wage-earners. BUSINESS MEN'S CONCERN Auckland business men viewed this move with concern. They had good cause to, for timber men had been a free-spending and prosperous section ! of the community since the sixties. ! The days of the timber boom In the | eighties and early nineties, when New j Zealand kauri was in world-wide demand —and not, as at present, lu danger of being run off the market by cheap overseas substitutes—are traditional with Auckland. Mechanics Bay, long vanished to make room for reclamations, was lined with mills; freeman’s Bay was as active a milling centre then as It is to-day. There was a big sawmill at North Shore, and another at Cox’s Creek. From the Northern Wairoa River cargoes of kauri went out upon the seven seas. The wealth paid for these cargoes was paid to the millers through the banks of Auckland. On such activity in timber was a large share of Auckland's prosperity founded. Let the situation then be compared with to-day, when the contrast is the more forceful from the fact that the war years and those immediately fol-1 lowing, when there was a great boom in building, were the best the timber | industry has ever had. Auckland to- j day has not only fewer mills, but the j men in them, if not actually on short I time at present, cannot regard their ‘ jobs as secure. IN THE KING COUNTRY So much for Auckland’s direct in terest. Its Indirect Interest still ex- I tends, as It did in the colourful nineties, to distant communities, which regard Auckland as their natural centre. All the way down the Main Trunk railway line the traveller a few years ago passed mill after mill — great rambling structures of sawn slabs or corrugated Iron. Their shrill whistles echoed even above the roar of the train, and the scream and whine of the monster band-saws and planing machines bespoke the furious energy of a great enterprise. To-day most of those mills are empty, the untenanted shells of former activity. The communities dependent on them inevitably suffered. Townships like Raetlhi suffered almost overwhelming setbacks when the timber industry slumped. The reduced spending power reflected in the restricted takings of the country stores, hotels, and picture theatres found its ultimate reflex as far away as the cities, where mercantile firms finishing their new skyscrapers in American joinery wondered in their obtuseness why the orders of their country travellers assigned to the main trunk milling towns showed a steady decline In volume. A moment’s earnest reflection should have convinced them, as it should convince anyone, that this unexpected but painful sequel was the inevitable result of a stupid policy — j the policy of importing timber when j Zealand capital lies Idle, and New Zealand workers search for jobs.