TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 13, 16 January 1926, Page 10

TIMBER INDUSTRY.

A TRYING PERIOD. IMPORTATIONS RESTRICT OUTPUT. Xew Zealand sawmillers are at present experiencing trying times. As the forests .are gradually being cut out, mills have to be taken further from the railheads, with corresponding heavier expenditure on tramlines. It is claimed that the prices which have to be paid in the Dominion for railage are heavier than in any of the competing timber countries, and in addition to this the Arbitration Court recently granted a rise of 6d per day to the already bigh wages which employees were receiving. The dairymen and fruitgrowers recently decided that the price being charged in Xew Zealand for butter and fruit boxes was too high, and when the sawmillers replied that they could not produce the boxes for less, orders were placed outside. Still another and more serious trouble which has overtaken the sawmillers is the heavy importation of timber into the Dominion. A recent communication received from the selling organisation of some thirty or more mills in the Main Trunk district, stated that the sawmilling industry in the North Island was now very seriously affected by the increasing quantity of timber imports. Writing on the subject to the Dominion Federated Sawmillers' Association, the company in question said: "We can only state from a general point of view that our sales show a marked decrease, and that our stocks are increasing at an alarming rate, particularly rough lining. sarking, 0.8., and dressing 0.8. This we attribute to the heavy importations of foreign timbers and wall boards. The geographical position of our mills and the recent increase in railage rates have accentuated our trouble. In view'of the parlous state of the trade, it was resolved to close all mills connected with this company for one month at the Christmas vacation, instead of the custqmary fortnight, and if conditions do not improve, some means of curtaling the output in order to keep stocks within reasonable limits will have to be considered." Capital New Zealand is Losing. Mr. A. Seed, secretary of the Dominion Federated Sawmillers' Association, had something to say on the subject to a "Dominion" reporter. He declared that the timber industry was of greater importance to the community than even the freezing, printing, coal-mining, or dairy produce industries. The number of employees engaged in the industries mentioned were: Timber, 0/35; freezing, 7301; printing, 5570; coalmining, 4800; dairy products, 4321. The wages paid to these employees in 1924 were: Timber, £2,055,774; freezing, £1,335,281; printing, f 1,261,029; dairy products, £808,000. As showing the loss the Dominion was sustaning in sending orders abroad for timber, lie pointed out that in 1923 12,084,880 superficial feet of timber had been imported at a value of £199,433; in 1924, this had risen to 22.918,155 superficial feet, at a value of £324,093; while for ten months of 1925, 35,169,504 feet had been imported at a value of £459,702. This, he declared, was money which there was no reason for sending out of , the country. When the freights paid ' for bringing the timber from overseas were taken into consideration, the loss was much greater. The freights paid during the last three years had been as ■ f0110w:—1922, f 138,429; 1923, £168,545; 1924, £271,688. The Xew Zealand dairy and fruit farmers, he maintained, were saving 2d a box on the imported article, as against the price at which they could be supplied in the Dominion, but they failed altogether to realise that they might be losing anything from 78/ to 104/ on deterioration of butter and fruit through taint imparted by the Baltic spruce boxes. Already complaints had been received on this head from London. He claimed that Xew Zealanders should support their own industries, especially when it meant keeping such a large amount of, money in the Dominion.