THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 20, 25 January 1927, Page 12

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

SERIOUS POSITION IN SOUTH. N.Z. WORKERS MENACED BY IMPORTS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUXEDIN, Monday. Mr. T. O'Byrne, secretary of the Otago and Southland Sawniillers' Union, in an interview said that sawmill workers from Otago antj Southland were making for the West Coast or the North Island, but conditions were little better there. The outlook for the next twelve months was black, and the approaching winter was likely to be one of the most distressing ever experienced in the eavvmilling industry from the point of view of both employer and worker. Quite a number of mills in Otago and Southland were likely to close down, this in some districts, being due to the fact that county councils would not allow tliem to cart for four or five months of this year on account of the effect on the roads in wet weather last year. This was responsible for the closing down of six mills in one district alone, the unemployment market being considerably augmented as a result.

"The livelihood of sawmill workers in Ota<jo and Southland is seriously threatened by the large importation of timber from Canada and the United States and to the restrictions imposed on the use of New Zealand ordinary bijilding timber by various local authorities and the State Advances Office," said Mr, O'Byrne, and he added that in the event of no action being taken by the Government in the master the Sawmill Workers' Union intended asking the Alliance of Labour to urge the waterside workers not to unload foreign timber.