IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 8

IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

TIMBER INDUSTRY; ' ■■■■'~ : MILLER-MERCHANT VIEWS ON CONTROL <To the Editor.) As a sawmiller and timber merchant many years' experience I would like to exL my opinion of the Timber Industry EfflX Bill. The bill is designed to brint S greater efficiency in the industry. What h*H evidence could one have of the: incompeS and inefficiency existing in the industry i\ the bill itself? The bill, if it beconX t will destroy its own objective. Eliminate ™™ petition, and you say farewell:to efficieS My advice.to the sawmillers is to elimS" the "hot air merchant" and then the bona fM sawmiller (whose fewness is a fundament cause of the present distress in the industrvi and timber merchant will ultimately put-th • own house in order and render efficient to the community. There are only a f efficient businesses in any industry and wta justification have the majority in any ftdiK try for imposing their will on the ininoritvt Efficiency cannot be produced by mass wn' duction methods. It rests with the individual himself. Whence is this magical exnert coming? Show me the man compete to give all the advice suggested and you Vill find him directing the affairs of a successful business. What competent sawmiller (or anv other man) would tolerate such inspectors or experts (defined by the Lord Chief Justice of England as men who know more and more about less and less) prying into the secrets of his success? These so-called experts will devise "a uniform costing system." ;Y O u can devise uniform methods of cost finding, biita "uniform costing system" is an impossibility An authority on the subject says: "The accomr tant called upon to devise forms for locrojuj and sawmill costs and bear in mind that the requirements for different mills vary, and also that every lumberman hag fcj. own—generally very definite—ideas on the eubject. The accountant must carefully study the needs of each individual mill and adapt lmself to conditions. To devise a single system which will adequately take care' of the costs in every mill is an impossibility." " . ■■;•. Feilding. G. BARTHOLOMEW ■