Govt Will Investigate Timber Price Rise

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31780, 10 September 1968, Page 1

Govt Will Investigate Timber Price Rise

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 9. The Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Marshall) has asked his department to investigate timber prices to ensure that the increases made by sawmillers and timber merchants are justified, justified.

Mr Marshall said today that the Government would expect each sawmill and merchant to take personal responsibility for setting prices according to the particular needs of his business, and if it appeared that there was any tendency to apply uniform price increases throughout any part of the industry the matter would be looked into under the Trade Practices Act.

Several Wellington builders’ merchants confirmed today they had increased the prices of timber.

They all said they would' follow fairly closely a guide issued by the New Zealand Timber Merchants’ Federation, although one said that in some lines his increases would be lower than those recommended. The president of the federation (Mr D. E. Hagenson) said that he estimated the increase would raise the cost of an all-wood house of 1000 square feet by between $lOO and $l3O. Mr Hagenson said merchants could not absorb both the increases imposed re-

cently by sawmillers and the higher labour costs resulting from the general wage order. He said that the retail price guide had been issued to merchants for their information, but no recommendations as to tLeir adoption had been made. The Government had been kept fully acquainted with the circumstances surrounding the increase, he said. The president of the Wellington Master Builders’ Association (Mr J. A. Anker) said builders were “most upset” at the increase. One builder said his firm would “negotiate with timber merchants to have prices kept the same,” and he expected other firms to do the same. The executive officer of the

Dominion Sawmillers’ Federation (Mr C. G. Costello) said individual sawmillers had set their own price increases. Customer’s View An Auckland builder has been told by five customers that if there is any increase in costs they will not go ahead with homes planned, according to a Press Association message. The manager of the Auckland Master Builders’ Association (Mr K. Knowles) said this loss would be the direct result of the combined action of sawmillers and timber merchants in lifting timber prices. The increases were imposed today, and Mr Knowles said the immediate reaction from the public was a flood of calls to builders asking: “How much more will my house cost?” Wage Order “In the case of one member, five customers have informed him that they will no* be proceeding with building if there are any increases.” he said. Mr Knowles said: “The action in increasing prices to allow not only for the effects of the general wage order and a varied assortment of costs, many of which would have been absorbed by firms as part of the normal overhead. but also to restore the industry to a basis of an over-

all profit margin of 8.3 per cent after taxation, was surely contrary to the intentions of the Trade Practices Act “Many people would find It difficult to understand the reasoning behind such a move, particularly under today’s conditions,” said Mr Knowles.