N.Z. WOOD WANTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1042, 5 August 1930, Page 7

N.Z. WOOD WANTED

STATION FURNISHINGS IN ENGLISH OAK MANUFACTURERS PROTEST The ‘proposal of the Government to have the furnishings at the new Auckland railway station made in English oak instead of in a New Zealand wood was the subject of an emphatic protest by the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association yesterday afternoon. A somewhat similar position also criticised by the association was the decision reached by the Waikato Hospital Board to buy English wooden bedsteads instead of an identical line made in New Zealand. The secretary to the association, Mr. J. Findlay, drew attention to the protest entered in the House by Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P. for Mauukau, against the proposal to invite tenders for oak furnishings at the station. Mr. Jordan had said New Zealand wood could be used and the articles made in the railway workshops. The Wellington Manufacturers’ Association had also drawn the attention of the Auckland association to the proposal, and Mr. Findlay communicated with the president of the association, Mr. George Finn, who was in Wellington at the time, requesting him to urge the use of a wood such as rlmu. Mr. Finn made representations to the Railway Department in Wellington, and received the information that the architect had been responsible for the specification. NOT SERVICEABLE? Mr. Finn said lie had interviewed the architect in Auckland, and had been told that rimu would not be sufficiently serviceable, and would not be in harmony with the surroundings. Though Southland beech would have been suitable, it was not obtainable. The architect favoured kohekohe, and believed a supply was available. In the belief that tenders for 50 tables and 230 chairs in quartered oak were in the hands of the Minister, the association decided to forward a protest against the letting of a contract not providing for the use of a New Zealand timber. On learning that the Waikato Hospital Board had decided to buy English bedsteads, one member of the board saying they were superior in quality to and cheaper than New Zealand bedsteads of a similar type, the association immediately communicated with the board, and was informed that the English bedsteads were abont 15s cheaper each. One manufacturing firm in Auckland informed the association that it had been making standard lines for some time, and no complaint concerning quality, design, or price had been received. One type had been made specially to the specification of a former medical superintendent of the Waikato Board. Mr. Finn remarked that the New Zealand bedstead was a replica of that from England, and the firm concerned had been supplying hundreds to the Auckland Hospital Board and others. The view of Mr. J. A. C. Allum, that the association should protest strongly against an action of any local authority showing an apparent lack of appreciation of the benefit front buying goods of New Zealand manufacture, was supported.