FORESTS & MILLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1938, Page 5

FORESTS & MILLS

EXTENSION OF STATE OPERATIONS DISCUSSION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. CRITICISM AND REPLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The activities of the State Forest Service and in particular the operations of the-State in the sawmilling industry provoked considerable discussion when the estimates of the State Forests Account were under consideration in the'House of Representatives yesterday. Mr W. J. Polson (Opposition, Stratford) referred to provision for capital ' charges of £116,500 in the section of the estimates dealing with the utilisation and industrial activities of the State Forest Service. He said that, quite apart from the question of the State going into the sawmilling industry, there seemed to be a great amount of money required. The Rotorua forests did not provide a great deal of milling material other than timber suitable for use in the dairy industry. There was also an item of £15,000 for housing construction, presumably for mill houses, but he had never heard of any milling venture paying as much as that for houses. . • The Commissioner of State Forests, the Hon F. Langstone: “We will not necessarily spend all that.” Mr Polson: “That sum seems outrageous .when it is merelya matter of sawing up the timber.” “The State has gone .4o all the trouble of. planting, management, forest husbandry and all the rest of it,” the Minister said, “but when it comes to the point where the harvesting can be done the member for Stratford suggests that we should hand it over to someone else. We are not interfering in any way with the private

milling industry, and I can assure members that all our expenditure has been closely examined. There is no 'Wastage. As a matter of fact, we are ting to put fencing-posts on the mar"ket shortly at half the present prices.” Mr J. Hargest (Opposition, Awarua) said the private millers were in great difficulties already, and the Minister, with all the resources of the State behind him, was making things more difficult still. The Minister of Education, the Hon P. Fraser: “What would you do with the timber?” Mr Hargest: “I would get the very best royalty possible.” Mr Fraser: “And what if the Minister reduces the price of fencing-posts by half?” . Mr Hargest: “We have only the Minister’s word for that. He has to do it yet, and show that his posts are as good as any others.” “This seems a lot of money to be spending on forest work,” said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Adam Hamilton. “Although our forest ’ resources are increasing the expenditure has doubled. I Wish to register a protest against the State going into the milling industry.” Mr Fraser: “There is room for them all.” Mr Langstone said the Opposition had not failed, in accordance with its custom, to criticise the State for going into sawmilling, but the State could carry on the industry much more economically than private enterprise could. He quoted figures' to show that from 1933 to 1937 the annual cost of forest management under the State was £1 16s an acre, while under private enterprise the cost was £5 Ils an acre. “When I was in the South Island some time ago,” Mr Langstone added, “I inspected the creosoting plant at Conical Hills, where fencing-posts are being made. I saw posts that had been in the ground for 10 years and they bore not the slightest signs of decay.” Mr Polson: “What is the timber?” Mr Langstone: “Ordinary pinus insignus.” Mr Polson: “What will they cost?" “We estimate that we will be able to turn out good, durable, fencingposts at £8 or £9 a hundred,” the Minister replied. “Orders have been received in Rotorua for about 250,000 fencing-posts, of which there is a dearth at present. We are thus helping the farming industry.”