SAWMILLING SECTION.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 3, 1 November 1918, Page 359

SAWMILLING SECTION.

[This Section is published by arrangement with the Dominion Federated Sawmillers' Association (Incorp.) in the interests of the Sawmilling Industry of N.Z.] Editor : Mr. W. T. IRVINE.

We notice the Governor's speech at the opening of Parliament foreshadows legislation with regard to afforestation and the regulation of timber export from New Zealand, and are aware the former has been in contemplation for some time past and that the Department will be in charge of Sir Francis Bell. In this connection it is desirable that the proposed legislation should be submitted to the Council of the New Zealand Forestry League, which should have the opportunity of expressing an opinion on the measure after being introduced to the House and we commend the matter to the President of the League, Sir James Wilson, for his earnest consideration. We are now fortunate in having secured a fair number of sawmillers as members of the League, and other associations and companies would do well to follow the example of the Main Trunk Timber Trade Protection Guild members, who have all joined the Forestry League so as to place themselves in the position of being in closer touch with all matters pertaining to afforestation. Successful forestry departments have been in existence in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland for some years. America is waking up to the necessity of starting the growth of new timber to replace in some measure what is cut down and it must be admitted the step taken on behalf of the Dominion is in the right direction so long as it is Carried out on sane lines and after the most careful investigation by thoroughly qualified experts who would make a study of our timbers before advocating regeneration or replacement, by the introduction of fast-growing firs, spruce, etc. As to the limitation of export, this is already provided for by the Timber Regulations recently Gazetted as a war measure, but it is evidently intended there shall be an extension of these Regulations to remain in existence after the close of the war. We shall hope to comment upon the measures as soon as they are brought down, as we want to see them studied from the practical view point of bush sawmillers. # * • • Under date, Sydney, 21st October, we learn that at the Annual Conference of the Country Press Association, the Secretary stated that the Government was experimenting in the production of newspaper from Australian timbers, and if the experiment proved satisfactory, it was proposed to subsidise the industry to the amount of £250,000 and establish mills to provide thirty thousand tons of wood pulp fibre annually. This . would, of course, have the effect of increasing the value of all timbers. ' * * * # Labour conditions along the Main Trunk show no improvement, notwithstanding the return of so many drafts of late. Wages are continually on the up grade

and many men are placed on the wages sheets at so much per week '' wet or dry.'' Having regard to the exceptionally bad weather experienced right through the winter, this of course adds greatly to the cost of production and must be passed on to the public in the shape of higher prices for our timber. This too is not the worst feature the miller has to contend with, as no one will dispute the fact that lessened tallies are the rule rather than the exception. The question of labour will have to be faced sooner or later and whilst we have every sympathy with the cause of the honest workman, the majority must be educated to see that anything that makes for non-efficiency and lowers the all round standard of work, cannot possibly be in the best interests of the workmen themselves in the long run. If good men stuck to their jobs more rigidly, and a system of profit-sharing were introduced entitling those who had put in, say, twelve months or more steady work, to a share of the profits beyond a legitimate return on the capital involved in a risky business such as sawmilling undoubtedly is, a better state of things than exists at present might he hoped for. The Federation should certainly aim at raising the standard of work and educating the workmen by all means in its power. * # # * The joint purchase of mill supplies has been undertaken by at least one Association on the Main Trunk but the system is capable of indefinite extension and if belting, saws, files, nails, axes, oils and other lines could be standardised after careful investigation, a great saving could be made to all millers willing to join together to pool their buying, as well as their selling. # * * * Most of the mills that were burned down hi the big Raetihi fire are now in operation or will he very soon, and several new ones are in course of erection in the Ohakune and Raehiti districts. Notwithstanding this the output does not enual the demand, and a difficulty is being experienced in obtaining timber for shipment to .fulfil freight engagements under contract, whereas a short time since the converse applied and it was difficult then to secure the necessary freight for timber exports. Home requirements are being chiefly used for large buildings such as wool stores, freezing works extension, hospitals and other public buildings, cottage building being reduced to a minimum. The usual outcry against the sawmiller continues to crop up, and the Chamber of Commerce in one or two cases have been urged to influence the Government to instruct the Board of Trade to hold an investigation with regard to the prices of timber. Why not with regard to the prices of all other materials used in the construction of a building?

It will be noted that most of the foregoing remarks are particularly applicable to the southern end of the North Island, and we would urge upon Members and Secretaries of Associations throughout the Dominion to send in local items of interest that may come under their notice, otherwise there will be a danger of confining current topics to one or two localities. The horizon of any one man is necessarily bounded, and we are anxious that local as well as general items of interest shall find a place in the Journal. # * * * The war has been the means of using up enormous quantities of all raw materials, amongst which timber has taken a prominent place, and the forests of Russia, America, France and other countries have been drawn upon for the needful supplies to construct roadways, trenches, buildings of all descriptions, hundreds of thousands of barbed wire entanglement posts, telegraph and telephone poles, pit and trench props, and thousands of cords of firewood daily. We learn that over 65,000 expert lumbermen are exclusively engaged in America, cutting spruce for use in the manufacture of aeroplanes. At the beginning of the year the output for the purpose was 2,000,000 feet monthly. It is now 10,000,000 feet a month and will soon be 20,000,000. This gives some idea of the number of aeroplanes America intends to turn out and the quantity of picked lumber used in their construction. A regiment of American lumbermen is operating in Prance and they expect to have 59 sawmills operating there very shortly. All this goes to show the enormous depletion of the world's timber resources brought about by the war, and that timber values should be regulated by the world's markets. # * # * The total computed lumber production of the United States in 1917 was 35,831 million feet, produced by 16,408 sawmills, a reduction of 10% of the quantity produced in 1916. The falling off is attributed to decreased private building operations, scarcity of labour, transport difficulties, lessened demand by woodusing industries, and general trade dislocation. Of the quantity produced a considerable proportion was taken by the Government for war emergency products, including shipbuilding material. Yellow pine formed 37.7 per cent, of the total cut, Douglas fir being credited with 5,585 million feet and white oak and white pine 2,250 million feet. A higher range of values all round than that obtained before the war broke out may safely be predicted for the future. # # # # The Annual Conference of the Association of of New Zealand Chamber of Commerce has just concluded and we notice amongst the remits considered was one moved by Palmerston North as follows, viz:—That this; Conference urges upon the Government the need of ./assiting in solving the housing problem, and recommends; an inquiry into the cost of building materials, especially timber". If, and when this enquiry takes place we make bold to say it will be found that the increased price of building timber is just about com-mensurate-with the increased cost of production taking

all legitimate factors properly into account, and that the percentage increase as compared with pre-war prices is infinitely less than many other items used in the construction of a building- # * * * Other remits at the Conference worthy of notice were: —That the Government should consider the im mediate adoption of the hydro-electric power schemes, similar to Lake Coleridge, to enable the industries fif the Dominion to meet after war competition; That the Conference affirms the principle that War Loans should be taxed ; That the Government should control sufficient shipping to move our produce both coastwise and overseas; That more active support and financial assistance should be given the Workers Educational Association; and that the Government should be requested to solve the difficulty of the upkeep of main arterial roads. # * * # The question of finding positions for repatriated soldiers was considered and it was urged upon the Government that the Post, Telegraph, and Railway services should be fully reinstated at the earliest possible opportunity. # * # # Appreciation. Appreciation is one of the greatest things in the world. However small it may be it goes a long way and helps to make life worth living. Someone has said it is to man what oil is to machinery and the man who does not apply it is as thoughtless as the man who does not apply oil to the machine he is using. If an employe)- has not the sense to appreciate the work of his employees, he runs a chance of having his whole business organisation fall to pieces like. the machine that receives no oil. If the oil of appreciation has not been applied, the efficiency of the machine is lowered. Whenever a man goes out of his way to benefit you, show your appreciation, you wont lose anything and you'll be making life a lot nicer for all concerned, and you'll like your own life a whole lot better too. Worry not over the future, The present is all thou hast, The future will soon be present And the present will soon be past For every illness under the sun, There is a remedy or none, If there be one try and find it, If there be none, never mind it. Consider well your actions. What's done you can't recall, No use to pull the trigger Then try to stop the ball. It's easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows like a song, But the man worth while, Ts the man with a smile, When everything goes dead wrong.