DEPLETION OF TIMBER.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 277, 21 November 1919, Page 7

DEPLETION OF TIMBER.

THE EXPORT TRADE. DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN SUPPLIES. / t • ' Some interesting comments on the work of the Board of Trade- in regard to the timber question were made at the conference of Builders and Contractors Employers' Association in Wellington on: Wednesday by one of the Auckland delegates, Mr. S. I. Clarke. Mr. Clarke was a member of the two commissions appointed by the Government to deal with the timber and forestry conditions. :

: Speaking to the motion for the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, Mr. Clarke said that it was fortunate the executive of the association was able to secure the appointment of Mr. W. H. Bennett, chairman of the conference, as well as that of himself on the timber committee of the board. They had found themselves in a minority, and they were not therefore able to do as much for.the builders as they should have done; 6till ! they believed their minority reports had brought gome good results. With regard to the export of timber, efforts had been i made to induce the Government to stop the export, but the reply had always been made that the Australian hardwood j was necessary here and that New Zealand must therefore reciprocate by allow, ing the export of its timbers. i He pointed out the manner in which' the timbers of the country were being depleted; shortly before the war official! returns showed that "we were depleting 1 our timber at the rate of over 300,000,000 superficial feot per annum," and that on; tho basis of the average yield per acre of commercial timbers this represented a clearance of 24,000 acres for each year. If we were now cutting up less than a million feet per day it was all the more reason why public attention should be called to the subject of the future of the Dominion in respect to timber requirements, since it would be found that the reduced output had been sold at a price I considerably in excess of the larger quan-' tity. Although the reduced output was | partly accounted for by the curtailing of I operations during the war it was also | due to the increased difficulties of work-l ing at continually increasing distances from the means of transit for the sawnj timber, and from the markets for which | the timber was required. Thus thei trouble was an accumulative one, and! must oi necessity continue to increase in ] its difficulties.

It had been repeatedly pointed out that dependence on foreign supplies for any length of time was to rely on a rotten stick, for other countri -3 from which supplies had been brought in the post were on the same road to destruction as ourselves, and it was to ourselves we must look for the remedy and relief.