SUPPLIES OF TIMBER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 253, 25 October 1943, Page 5

SUPPLIES OF TIMBER

IMPROVEMENT IX POSITION (0.C.) DUNEDIN, Sunday. An improvement in the position relating to timber supplies in the Dominion is expected in the near future, said a timber merchant. He explained that for a period of about 12 months, the labour position and the heavy demand by the United States Government for the shipment of timber to the Pacific had brought about a shortage of supplies in tho mills in New Zealand, and it had been impossible to replace in the yards the stocks which had been reduced by the construction of huts and accommodation for home defence purposes. A quota system had been introduced by the Timber Controller, he stated, by which merchants were able to obtain a percentage based on their 1938 supplies. The labour position was so acute, however, that even under this system merchants could not procure their quotas, and to conserve timber for military purposes the issue of permits for private work was discontinued, and carpenters who had been engaged in private house-building were drafted to the North Island. "The situation has eased considerably," the merchant said, "and the controller of house-building will now grant a permit for the building of a house if it can be shown that it is required urgently." There should be further improvement on the return of many members of the Forestry Unit of the Second N.Z.E.F. who would rejoin the milling companies by which they were formerly employed. The erection of mills in certain parts of the Pacific for the sawing of island timbers would also tend to ease the supply position.