The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, April 5. NEW SAWMILLING REGULATIONS

Taihape Daily Times, 5 April 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, April 5. NEW SAWMILLING REGULATIONS

(With wMeh is incorporated TbejTai- . h&pe Po«t &nd WalEjartao Newß).

The Government having just recently issued a regulation, prohibiting the sale ,£in'd the cuttir.g of timber except on license, may or may not, detrimentally affect the sawniilling industry in this district. Beyond the notification that timber may only be cut and Sold, there is'.little known about what the real intention of the Government is. It seems to us that the two antagonistic parties, timber gotten;, and timber dealers, are still making the subject of timber prices something for regulation. Whether the Wellington journal that commented upon the new regulation wrote from an inspired source or otherwise, its suggestions eonstituto something for soriuus thought by those engaged in the milling industry. It is undeniable that since the war began there has been a force at work to crush down producers' remuneration by the dealing fraternity, ;a.nd to eonscieneelessly inflate them to the consumer, and no more determined set has been made against any source of i production than that in which the saw-j miller is engaged. Sometime ago most { enatie stories were going into public | print about the wicked timber-getter i j I v.'ljo was putting his prices up so that j a house that cost £4OO before the war was now costing £SOO. It was shown at the time that those stories were misleading inventions. The people who w rote those* inventions were privileged a few evenings ago to sit and listen to Mr Hurst Scagar speak on the subject cf house-planning, and, incidentally, to drive home to (hem the unpalatable fact that ) in trying to hold'' back from samillers the increases in price they were entitled to, they had told, a serr.es of fables about the effect those increases would have on the cost of building. Mr Hurst Scagar is, perhaps, the foremost Tiiali in his profession in Australasia, a man who would not permit his reputation to be sullied by his own rash, statements. He threw ■ upon a screen a picture of a week-end ! house i.'rected for him at Hanmor a small, but a more than ordinarily j ornamental structure for a building of such a size. It possessed some five ! hundred and sixty superficial feet of floor snaco, which, 0 f course, meant a i much larger area of roofing iron, or \ other roof-covering; it has equal fo four : rooms over 140 feet each, and only little less in size than very many of fho so-called four-roomed cottages one ; frequently encounters now-a-days. Tho ceilings of the rooms were rather ' elaborate, but this wa,s balanced by want of a proper cooking range, and possibly by other small conveniences not required in a week-end house but wo are only assuming these conveniences are missing. This house Mr Hurst Scagar designed and had built for himself, miles away from where •-1-ii.n.cr materials were obtainable, and 1

it cost Mm exactly £250, After paying

what some interested people arc pleased to call the wicked extortions of sawrnillers, he got his cottage complete for £250. No one denies that timber has increased in price, but while the whole country was suffering from profiteering rabies, it, was not thinkable that timber-getting could remain the profitless business it had been in the past. If any production in this district is inadequately remunerated it is reflected on the business \oi the town; it is to nobody's advantage that any industry should be inadequately remunerated. The Efficiency Board and the Board of Trade have had to settle timber prices, and to limit the export of timber, and now Mr Hurst Seagar, a highly reputable architect demonstrates that (these Boards have tied the milling industry down as closely as justice and the needed production of timber warranted. Sawmillers have been absolved by *Mx Hurst Seagar and the Board of Trade from the charge of profiteering, but another note of alarm has been struck by a Government regulation, which, if interpreted correctly, means anything but a peaceful future for them. Government is going to retain the veto over timber sales and timber cutting. We cannot believe it is a question between forestry demands and earthhunger; while there are millions of acres of timbcrless land awaiting closer settlement it is unbelievable that any Government will sacrifice by fire the millions of pounds' worth of 'timber standing on , virgin country. It is. ridiculously suggested that those who denude the land of trees should be compelled to re-afforcstatc. The men who are badgering for restrictions of this kind are amazingly unconscious of what effect, the adoption must have on timber prices of the future. They ask whether licenses to cut timber will be goaded, with -jonditions guarding against waste timber arising ftrom: faulty cutting and rejection of marketable trees, but this is all a witless admission that , timber prices are not over-much in the miller's if they were he eoxdd very, well be trusted t'O put the saw through everything saleable so long as his reputation for supplying a good article was not detrimentally affected thereby. The outstanding fact is that a huge demand exists 'for sawn timber, While the national supply is becoming alarmingly limited; the main question is ; would the supply be conserved by cheapening the sawn product? We cannot think it would, we therefore eliminate prices from the serious aspect of the timber Question, because it is obvious' that h arras sing restrictions, or putting responsibility on rnillers to re-afforestate where they bad cut, must of necessity further • increase selling prices of timber, and the very opposite of the desire of cheap timber advocates would result. The crux of the timber problem lies in the rapidly decreasing supply, and we fail to see how compelling millers, to accept inadequate remuneration to permit prices being lowered to dealers could result otherwise than in a much-increased demand that would make the supply aspect still more serious, or that millers would forsake an unprofitable and so further cause a tendency to higher prices through the sequential decrease in supply of the sawnproduct. For the ensuing ten years the people of this territory will be interested in the milling industry, and any regulations that limit output and prices are cause for their serious consideration.