Wood Research Urged

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 36

Wood Research Urged

[ (N Z. Press Association) ! ROTORUA, Oct. 13. 1 The Minister of Forests : (Mr Maclntyre) today • called for greater research in the timber and ; sawmilling industries to . find more and better ■ ways of using wood.

In separate speeches to the Timber Merchants’ Federation and the Sawmillers’ Federation, he urged a bigger role by private enterprise in research. Research into the use of wood must not remain at its present level, with organisations financed by public money carrying the load, he said.

Mr Maclntyre told the Timber Merchants’ ’ Federation that the Building Research Association levy, plus a dol-lar-for-dollar Government subsidy, should within a few years provide more than $300,000 for research. This development had two implications for the timber industry—first that timber as a building material would be

subject to more rigorous examination than before, and second that if wood products were to continue to provide value for money, they would have to be inexpensive, reliable and versatile. The Minister criticised the Timber Merchants’ Federation for “doing little jointly to promote the use of wood.” He said the $14,000 budget of the Timber Development Association was insufficient and the association could not be expected to promote wood effectively unless it had more money. Only a fraction of what could be done was being done, Mr Maclntyre said. In his address to the Sawmillers’ Federation, the Minister denounced the waste from logs and said that with rapidly expanding markets and increasing demand on the output of New Zealand forests the day was gone when such wastage could be tolerated. The efficient use of materials called for expensive modem plant, and efficient use of this plant meant more shift work. In the exotic sawmilling industry of tomorrow there would be no place for the small man. Economies dictatated this, and the social problem created by technological change would have to be faced.