Sawmilling Section

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 6, 1 February 1921, Page 136

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.]

Acting Editor : ARTHUR SEED.

From Sydney in a recent Press telegram comes the news that the Timber Workers’ Union there are claiming new rates of wages, as follow: —Labourers, £7 165.; shaper hands, £lO 125.; other employees, £l2 12s. This is sufficiently informative to require no comment.

A considerable amount of attention has been paid recently by those interested in the matter to the proposed afforestation of the coast sand dune areas on the West Coast of the North Island between Paekakariki and Patea, and an article recently appeared in the Manawatu Herald recording the result of a conference between representatives of Public Bodies in the District and Captain Ellis, Director of Forestry. Subsequently a deputation, introduced by Mr. W. H. Field, waited upon the Prime Minister regarding the subject, and proposed an experimental station in the area and a Government grant of £I,OOO per annum for five years to support it for demonstration purposes by the Forestry Department. There can be no doubt that this would be a step in the right direction, and Mr. Massey supported the suggestion and admitted it was time that something was done. We cannot understand why Wellington City was not represented on the deputation or at the conference, for it is a matter that should be very vital to the city. It is estimated that there are some 100,000 acres of sand dune areas in the district, and if this were to be afforested it should provide a perpetual timber and wood supply for the city in future years. It is a matter, therefore, that should claim the attention of the Wellington City Council, the Central Progress League and kindred bodies. The afforestation of such areas comparatively close to large and growing markets should prove of far greater value than planting in districts remote from markets such as Rotorua and Hanmer, quite apart from the good to accrue from arresting the sand drift over high-class land; and this serves to emphasise the point brought out by Mr. J. Butler in the recent Sawmillers’ Conference with Sir Francis Bell on forestry matters that the cost of timber transport is a very large factor in its ultimate price to the consumer.

We would remind our sawmiller readers that any articles they might like to send forward or correspondence on matters of interest to the industry, will be gladly published in these pages.

Information has reached us that exception has been taken to our reference in last month’s issue to Oregon timber and the references recently made by the American Consul-General for New Zealand in

regard to the demand for Oregon here. Our -informant states that had the Consul said “labour is becoming exhausted” rather than “the accessible forests of the Dominion are exhausted” he would have been nearer the point; and we quite agree and do not necessarily endorse all the sayings of other people that we may publish merely with the view of their being of interest to our readers. Also we agree with our informant that is is certainly not our province to “boost” American lumber—but rather the reverse —although it is advisable that sawmillers should know what is doing or likely in the matter of imports. We no doubt also should have pointed out that in considering quotations for Oregon the high rate of exchange should be taken into account in reckoning the probable cost of this timber landed in New Zealand.

In order to keep alive public interest in forestry matters the Council of the Forestry League recently decided to appoint an organiser to secure additional members and form district committees, etc., and to make the League a “power in the land,” and they are now on the look for a suitable man to undertake the work. When such organiser, is appointed and reaches the sawmilling districts, -we would urge our readers to assist in helping the good work on. » * ' *

Following the feeling of insecurity as to the future and the uncertainty that existed in the minds of the sawmillers, particularly on the West Coast, regarding the policy to be adopted by the Forestry Department (which feeling was briefly referred to in our last issue), and in reply to a letter from the Dominion Federated Sawmillers’ Association on the subject to him, the Commissioner of State Forests (Sir Francis Bell) recently delivered to the Executive of the Federation a very important policy statement. We are pleased to note that the daily Press of New Zealand considered the matter of sufficient moment to warrant the statement itself being given very wide publicity, and it has received very considerable editorial comment throughout the country; so much so that our readers will be sufficiently conversant with the matter to require little, if any, further comment here. This very publicity, however, should be an indication to sawmillers that the public generally are taking an increasingly keener interest in matters that vitally affect their industry, and although the activities of the new Department will more immediately be felt in such districts as the West Coast where the majority of the bushes being worked are State-owned, the millers in other districts, or those who are working in freehold or privately held forests, will do well to realise that eacn year more and more of these forests are becoming

“worked out” and that their future attentions will have to be turned to State forests if they are to continue in the business. Consequently it behoves them to see the necessity of joint action (now more than ever) in order that their influence may be felt and used in an endeavour to have the Forest Act and regulations so shaped that they will least interfere with the conduct and practices of sawmilling while meeting the necessary ends of forestry.. We doubt whether there is any other industry in the country that is so State controlled as sawmilling already is, being under control as to prices and export; yet the control is now to reach, the production end through the Forestry Department, thus making the industry in a short while wholly State controlled. It is evident, therefore, that the machinery of the Sawmillers’ Federation will be increasingly necessary to guard the interests of all engaged in the industry, and it is to be hoped that the same harmony of relations will continue to mark its intercourse with the Board of Trade and Forestry Department as has been so marked a feature in the past.

Another matter of vital interest to sawmillers that has received deserved publicity in the daily Press during the past few weeks is their recent decision not to press for an increase in prices to cover the increased cost of production due to the Arbitration Court award of a 3s. per week “cost of living” bonus to employees. Such action at the present time is certainly an example to be commended to others to follow. This continued chase of wages and prices ever upward during the past few years has now come to be known as “The Vicious Circle,” but it was more aptly named by a prominent timber man recently as “The Vicious Spiral,” and one can readily vizualise it as such, for there must come a point in the race where the “spiral” would become top-heavy and topple over suddenly, bringing in its fall ruin and unemployment to a large proportion of the community. Thus if those in other industries, both employers and employed, will take heed and follow the example set by the sawmillers we may look for a gradual settling down of prices and wages—and concurrently the cost of living—instead of the violent economic disruption that would be entailed in the sudden toppling over of “The Vicious Spiral.”

Some confusion appears to exist in the public mind as to the term sawmiller, and it is generally thought by town dwellers, and the Press, to apply to timber merchants or distributors. To our mind the name should only apply to those engaged in the conversion of the forests into timber, or the “country miller,” as he is sometimes called. Even some Government Departments when dealing with the industry make the name embrace country millers, timber merchants, and sash and door factories, and most of the statistics published regarding number of employees, etc-, embrace all three, which are really distinct and separate industries. A move should be made to get the Government Statistician

to collect and publish figures relating only to the sawmilling industry as distinct from the timber manufacturing or distributing industries.

The latest news of Mr. W. T. Irvine is to the effect that he is still very unwell and is taking a course of treatment in a sanatorium some distance out of Sydney. At the recent meeting of the Executive of the Sawmillers’ Federation Mr. Irvine was granted a further two months’ leave of absence, and it is to be hoped that before this time expires he may be well on the road to recovery. He writes rather despondently, and if some of his sawmiller friends could find time to write him a letter it might tend to cheer him up. His address is; C/o G. C. Beckett, Esq., Sunday Times Office, Sydney.