IMPORTED TIMBER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 251, 22 October 1926, Page 11

IMPORTED TIMBER.

(To the Editor.}

Sir,—lt is to be hoped the local bodies and their advisers have a greater knowledge of timbers than can be obtained from the columns of a daily paper. Incontestable evidence shows Western' red cedar is allit iß'aaicl to.be. It has,however, the following advantages over New Zealand rimu in particular, which is the timber for which the. required protection is asked. It ia durable, in fact, it is the most, durable wood in existence, for which statement there 4s ample evidence. Although ijt has pests to which it is subject, as has Australian hardwood and every other known timber,, it is far more resistant to insect pests than any.New Zealand variety. It needs no. creosoting to preserve it, bat i contains a; natural oil, which impregnates every fibre. It is cheap and light and easy to handle,, dries out in half the time of rimu, and when dry will not shrink or warp, but when once put into position will , stay put. The strength of a house is in the framing and not in the thickness of the weatherboards. Western red cedar, whether splayed or bevelled, will give all the stiffening necessary to make a lifetime job. With no imported timber, New Zealand could not, by.any means, supply its own requirements of heart timber for weatherboards and flooring. During the past five years New Zealand has, I believe ( imported over 30,000,000 feet of Western red cedar of. which 90 per cent has been used for the weatherboarding of houses. If this has displaced an equal quantity of New Zealand clean and dressed heart timber, do the New Zealand sawmill?rs. still carry this quantity of heart timber; if.not, where' has it gone? If the New Zealand eawmillers'would have been unable-to supply this quantity over, and above tha;t already placed on the market, then the importation of Western red cedar must have enabled millions of feet of the New Zealand sawmillere , 0.8. to be absorbed in the framing, flooring and lining, which otherwise they would have on their hands. With the importations, the saw- ■ millers are meeting the same difficulties as the dairy fanners, aiid, in fact, every man who is engaged in business during slack times. Wjtb Western red cedar, mills have opened up for whose output no demand could' have been found, scores of men have been found employment, hundreds of cheap houses have been erected to employ labour and relieve the housing problem, and the New Zealand sawmillers are at present without appreciable stock of heart rimu on hand, the only quality against which Western red cedar is a competitor. If the local bodies wish to restrict the extension of building in their districts, to add fo the labour problem, to raise the cost of erection, and, incidentally, to disclose the fact that their by-lays are based on ignorance and not on knowledge, then let them go ahead. Every man,, whether in the trade or out of it, wishes to see as much local timber and local labour used as can be used to advantage, but prejudice, created by ignorance, can only bring injury to the whole community.—l am, etc.,

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Your correspondent, "A Sawmiller," might go a little further and teU us how we are going to get timber grown in New Zealand to stand 40 year*' growing expenses and pay. The State. is planting areas so far back that alt the expensive thinning is done to waste and cost of transport will eat up what is left of the value of the grown timber after payment for essential services. Added to which the State can dodge lots of charges which private plantations will have to stand. My reason for writing is, however, to draw attention to the unanimity in stupidity which all these would-be-protected folk exhibit in stating or assuming that we send vast sums out of the country for timber. We don't. Nor-for anything else, even interest on debt. We borrow the latter every year, and all other items are paid for in butter, meat, wool, etc Don't the Protectionists want us to send out any exports? Or would it suit better if we got back furniture and ready-made houses in lieu of timber! We must trade in something,, and surely the most innocent goods we could possibly import from the Protectionist's point of view should be raw materials—until our own are cheap enough to use, anyiow! A queer tale some of the imported logs could tell — of sledge, river, road, railway and an eight or ten- thousand miles' journey by boat', to add to the expense of the import tariff, if they could speak. It would be hard for the New Zealand sawmiller to believe that all they have been through could be done for the money. What the New ■ Zealand sawmilling industry will have to do is get down its costs of production. It is not the only industry 'that has to face that problem.—l am, etc, ■ KERI KERI.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I have been greatly interested in the letters which have appeared in your columns referring to imported cedar and Oregon. As a builder and joiner for the past 26 years I have been very observant regarding the nature and stability of some of our local timbers. I am residing in a house that has been built ouly a few years, and I find by close observation that some of the rimu studs are riddled with the borer. Two of the doors have suffered similarly, also inside facings and other parts. I have been using cedar and Oregon for the past three years. I find that they come up to all expectations, both for inside and outside uses. The cedar I find does not shrink or twist, makes splendid sashes and doors, and stands up to all weathers. It is pleasant to work, and I have never yet seen a piece of cedar attacked by borer. Oregon makes splendid framing and a good strong, straight roof is the result by using it. This test has been made with our local timbers and cedar. A piece of ljin cedar, one of 0.8. rimu, one of medium kauri, one of totara, were -left lying out in the weather among all the muck and dirt in the yard, and when taken up after a period the 0.8. rimu was twisted, shaken and quite rotten; the medium kauri was just as bad; the totara was shaken, but sound; and the cedar remained straight, sound and unshaken, and when it was put through the planing machine was just the same as when it came into the yard. I have some 0.8. rimu that I had to pay 35/ per hundred for, and is not fit for use: some of it shows where the bark of the tree has been, and to put, a crosscut saw through it is like trying to cut cork and very little of it is straight.—l am' etc - \ FAIRPLAY.