SAWMILLING SECTION.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 7, 1 March 1919, Page 456

SAWMILLING SECTION.

We reproduce in another column extracts from

a paper read at the annual meeting of the Industrial Corporation of New Zealand, held in Christchurch, on the 20th February—having reference to State Forestry and Timber supply. The paper was prepared by Mr S. 1. Clarke, Auckland, and in the discussion that followed we notice a Mr Harbutt moved that; ‘Urgent representations he made to the Government to place an export duty of at least 5/per 100 feet on all kinds of timber exported from the Dominion and that the most urgent measures he enforced to preserve the remaining native timber supply.” Later on in reply to several comments, he remarked that, “the best policy, perhaps, was absolutely to prohibit the export of timber.” • Now, this kind of talk is very cheap and easy because destructive, and had Mr Harbutt made any suggestion in the nature of a plain basin proposition as to how he proposes to treat an industry employing the largest number of workers hi

the country, we would have had much more respect for his opinion. But when no thought of compensation, and a policy of confiscation is advocated, what practical result can come of such a resolution ? If his ideas were carried out it would mean, closing down at least one third of the mills in the countrythrowing out of employment large numbers of men—and the ruin of the sawmiHers themselves, unless full compensation for their capital outlay, and loss of their means of livelihood were provided for. It is passing strange that in a business such as the liquor trade compensation to the extent of £4,500,000 is proposed to be paid in event of a prohibition poll being carried, no thought of compensation appears to enter the minds of some people who would wipe out in one act a greai parr of an industry that has been instrumental in opening up the country and laying the foundation of smiling farms and homesteads, and so • increasing the primary products of. the country and our main staple exports. Moral’- or rather immoral Bolshevism is abroad in the' land, if opinions of this kind are to be taken seriously. * * * * Since our last issue and as a result of a deputation to the Hon. Minister in charge of the Timber Regulations, additional facilities have been granted for the transfer of 1 permits to export, in cases where certain millers arc not in a position to make use of the permits, themselves. These will now be handled by the Board of Trade, and millers whose business consists of export only will have special

[This Section is published by arrangement with the Dominion Federated Sawmillers* Association (Incorp.) in the interests of the Sawmilling Industry of N.Z.] Editor ; W. T. IRVINE.

consideration, on making the necessary applcation, and complying with the Board’s requirements. * # * # “Members have been much exercised by the repeated and numerous increases in the prices of ordinary building timbers,” states the Wellington Builders and Contractors’ Association in its annual report. “These have so seriously increased in all parts of the Dominion as to warrant the Builders’ Federation in securing data and submitting it to the Board of Trade and the. Minister of Forestry with an urgent request that immediate steps be taken to prevent further increases in prices and the draining of available supplies by export to Australia, It is hoped the protest made will result in a price, commensurate with the cost of production, being fixed by Government for the different classes of, timber. The rapid depletion of our forests gives cause for prompt steps being taken by the Government to adopt a scheme of systematic planting of forest trees for future supplies, and the Builders’ Federation is active in urging upon the Government the need for this.” * * * * The foregoing is simply a repetition of statements made from time to time regarding the fixation of prices which we reaffirm cannot be based on the cost of production to the miller equitably, because so many items of cost must be added to the millers for work done or services rendered before the timber finally reaches the public in the form of a building—and it is quite apparent these services together with the original cost, are varying day by day. Further, a percentage of cost that might be a fair thing to one miller, would mean ruin to another. Is the Builders’ and Contractors’ Association, of Wellington, agreeable to limit its percentage of profit on all work undertaken by its members, and are all the materials comprised in the construction of a building to be paid for on the limit of profit/ ' principle? The contractor who agrees to erect on a fixed percentage basis of the cost of- all material he purchases, is far better off than the sawmiller, hut of course he is not a producer, and therein lies the difference , • ###■*• The epidemic in Australia, together with the increased freights announced by the Union Company, to cover quarantine/ risks and restrictions, is bound to react upon New Zealand, and we anticipate there may be a falling; off in export, and a reluctance on

the part of buyers to operate with regard to new contracts. We hope these conditions may only 'be of a temporay nature and are of opinion there is no cause for anxiety regarding the ultimate stability of the Australian market for our limbers.

The hydro-electric scheme for the North Island would appear to have advanced a stage now that the Hon. Minister for Public Works has visited the head waters of the Mangahao. There are three prospective sources of supply of water power for the purpose of generating the electric current, viz.: Orapuni, about seven miles from Horahora, Waikaremoana and Mangahao, and it is intended these will be interlinked and capable of creating sufficient driving power for the needs of the greater part of the North Island. When it is considered that the electric power supplied by the Lake Coleridge scheme meant an equivalent of something like 50,000 tons of coal last year, the immense saving in that comodity for the production of heat and steam may be imagined. The Lake Coleridge scheme has proved a great success and is self-sup-porting after a three years’ run, which is two years ahead of the original estimate. Men and money are of course needed for development of the new schemes, but both should be forthcoming if the Dominion is to make the strides in advancement we are entitled to look for, and it would appear that a policy of immigration must be embarked upon unless the country is to reman in a stationary condition so far as the development of its natural resources are concerned. Cheap power for our industries, railways, tramways, and for household use would send the country ahead by leaps and bounds. '