SAWMILLING SECTION.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 6, 1 February 1919, Page 431

SAWMILLING SECTION.

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

During the holidays we had the opportunity of visiting Nelson, and in a wood-working establishment there, saw something of the process of shredding short lengths of timber and connecting them into “wood-wool” for fruit packing. A kind of guillotine with many knives shreds the wood, and it passes automatically into a press similar to an ordinary wool press, in which it is baled up ready for shipment by rail or steamer. We were given to understand this is the only machine of the kind in the Dominion, and that the “wool” is forwarded to all the gruit growing districts in New Zealand for packing apples in particular. Formerly large quantities were imported from Tasmania and Victoria, but owing to various causes little has found its. way to New Zealand of late. * # # * Referring to the paragraph which appeared in last issue of this journal on the increased price of timber we reproduce copy of a letter by “Fair Values,” addressed to the editor of the “New Zealand Times.” This amplifies the remarks contained in our last issue, wherein it was stated that the cost of timber when it reaches the house or actual consumer, is the true point at which it affects the public or users. To say that the price to the public shall depend on the cost of production to the sawmiller, is simply to create a fallacy and draw a red herring across the scent, as so many intermediate services must be rendered and added to the sawmiller’s price before the timber reaches the user, and these are all capable of exploitation. Then, again, if timber is to be sold at a percentage of profit on cost, why not wool, cheese, butter, wheat, oats and all other products, and whose cost is to be considered the basis of calculation'? Is it to be the man most favourably or least favourably situated When the character of the country to worked,'distance from railway or shipping port, royalty or rent payable on the standing timber arc all taken into consideration, the variation of cost in individual cases must be very great, and a reasonable profit to one may mean a loss to another. * * * * The whole world appears to be in a dreadful state of unrest, and the war after the war between capital and labour, or rather between the “have nots” and those who have, grows darker almost daily. We have never seen a clear definition of Bolshevik or the Bolshcviki, but as Ave understand it, the term stands for anarchy and the under-mining of everything that makes for good government and order. In addition to the physical realm all moral order is

submerged, and we are to be brought down lower than the beasts of the field should Bolshevik principles prevail. The suitability of pinus insignias for butter boxes is being tested by experiments carried out by Mr 11. G. Kingsland, of Nelson. He has forwarded to the Agricultural Department three boxes of butter, which have been stored at the freezing works, Stoke. The butter will be kept for three months, arid the condition then reported on by the Dairy Division. ■» * ' * * It is a certainty that a better understanding between capital and labour, the employer and the employee, will be brought about, and in this connection the British Whitley Committee has recently brought down a most valuable report and Ave reproduce in another column an article from the “Sydney Morning Herald” bearing upon the subject under the heading of “Industrial Unrest.” The crux of the whole trouble is well put in a few words. “That labour does not favour increased production is due to the fact that labour does not believe that any of the increase would accrue to itself. Therein lies the problem. How if there is increased production, shall labour be given its share and the other factors of production their share? Until a reasonable solution of these questions is found, industrial unrest will always be more or less in evidence.” »

That a considerable quantity of timber is being imported from Ameripa, notwithstanding the scarcity of tonnage, is evidenced by the returns of the Bruce Railway and Coal Company,-which is the South Island agent for Messrs J. J. Moore and Co., Oregon and redwood exporters, of San-Francisco (states a Dunedin paper). Since the beginning -of March, 705,000 ft. of Oregon, 174,000 ft .; of redwood, 39,000 fr, of yellow pine, 1500 bundles of redwood shingles, and 362,000 Oregon laths have arrived at Lyttelton and Dunedin a total of about 1,008,000 super, feet of timber. Orders booked to arrive early this year total between 400,000 and 500,000 super, feet. For the same period a total of 45,300 super, feet of hardwood has been imported from Australia in execution of contract for supplies of telegraph cross-arms for " the New Zealand Government. :

State forestry business' occupied the ' attention of the Commissioner of State Forests, Sir Francis Bell, during his visit to Auckland. Prior to his

departure for Rotorua Sir Francis Bell said he had arranged for the railway sawmills to be taken over by the State Forestry Department, During his visit to Rotorua he "will discuss with the natives the question of the ownership of the bush at the edges of the lakes in the district, and he will also visit the prison plantations. Towards the end of the week he will leave with the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald for the East Coast, travelling via Whakatane and Opotiki to Gisborne, and visiting the State forests en route.

Hitherto the humble pinus insignus has been regarded as having but little value as a timber tree, owing to the knotty formation of its wood throughout. A novel experiment recently made by the manager of Ellis and Burnand Veneer Co., at Manunui, has disproved this belief, with remarkable results. The pinus is treated similarly to other timbers used in ply-work, and the finished article is a highly pleasing and beautifully grained veneer, much handsomer than any usually in favour, and having equal value as an accessory to cabinetmaking.

If the Avar has taught the lumber industry one single lesson it has been the necessity for proper cost ascertainment. The benefits which will accrue in the future will be of inestimable value. Men are not nearly so apt to cut a price deliberately when ihey have in front of them the real cost of production.