N.Z. Plywood Industry “Has A Big Future”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30603, 20 November 1964, Page 14

N.Z. Plywood Industry “Has A Big Future”

The plywood industry in New Zealand had a big future, and there was considerable scope for the use of plywood in New Zealand and the rapidly developing area around it, Mr N. S. Perkins, an American expert on plywood, said yesterday. Mr Perkins is on a 15-day tour of New Zealand, during which he is lecturing on plywood and its uses. His visit is sponsored by the United States State Department, and is being organised in New Zealand by the New Zealand Timber Development Association. Mr Perkins has given

two lectures in Christchurch to architects, engineers, manufacturers, and merchants, and today will visit Dunedin before returning to Wellington and flying to Australia. He recently retired as technical director of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association of the United States, and is regarded as America’s leading expert on plywood. Mr Perkins said that New Zealand plywood manufacturers were very competent and alert. Until now there had been no promotional programme for plywood, and this had been needed, but work was being done on this. The industry also needed to have standard grades and quality control of these grades, this control preferably managed by the industry itself. The New Zealand industry was aware of this also, and was at work on it. He felt that more use could be made of plywood in New Zealand, but this could not come overnight. The uses and future of plywood in New Zealand' had a big potential, and its use could greatly speed construction, for instance in houses, where it could be used for walls, floors, and in roof construction.

The American plywood industry, which was one of the fastest growing in the United States, was based on free competition, and he felt that price controls could hold an umbrella over poor producers and damage the industry.