EXPORTS OF WEST COAST TIMBER

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25537, 3 July 1948, Page 8

EXPORTS OF WEST COAST TIMBER

CANCELLATION OF SUBSIDY From Our Own Reporter . GREYMOUTH. July L 1 Sawmillers in the Buller and Westland districts were just as free now | as they ever were in the past to shin their timber anywhere they liked, said | the Commissioner of State Forests Mr . C. F. Skinner, in reply to criticisnw i on the discontinuation of the Govern- ’ ment subsidy paid on the costs of transporting timber milled in certain districts. Millers were at liberty to arrange tg shipments for Australia, the North Island. or other South Island ports, said Mr Skinner. Thd’ only difference was that now the North Island mills were fast approaching the point where they could cope with the demand for timber in that island; while in the South Island, where in recent years there had been a surplus, the demand was now exceeding the supply. Because of these facts, the Minister said, the Government could not continue the payment of subsidies. The cancellation of the subsidy was the subject of a protest made by the Westland Timber Industry Employees' Union at Karamea last week. The meeting considered that the subsidy should be paid for at least another 12 months. “To ask the industry to carry a sudden cancellation of the whole of the “subsidy will definite!? .< mean hardship to a number of mea* | who will lose their jobs,” stated a re» y solution which was carried unanifc'l mously. “If the subsidy is taken off, then the cont-ol of prices should also be lifted, to a. low the industry a cuance to rehabilitate itself. In ’’.he Karamea district alone there are 50 men employed, a great number of these men beiug married. “We further ask that no embargo on the shipping of timber to the North Island be imposed, as this will adversely affect the whole of the Buller u district." The resolution was sent on to the Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser), and to Mr Skinner.