Higher price, less use for native timbers

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 20

Higher price, less use for native timbers

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The decision by the Government to approach the Commerce Commission to lift price controls on native timbers should, in turn, lead to a sharp rise in native timbei prices in comparison w'ith exotic timbers, and a consequent curtailing of their use. All parties involved in the future of the timber industry on the West Coast, whether in favour of milling or in favour of conservation, have been agreed that it would h've been wasteful to use scarce kahikatea from South Westland in the boxing built as part of the Mackenzie Basin hydro-power project.

which has been a persistent rumour in recent years. No-one has sought the lifting of price controls more earnestly than the Forest Service. High prices have been an obvious method by which to reduce wastage of a scarce resource and to reduce the pressure to mil) native timber. Attitudes to native timbers nave taken a long time to change “wastage” was irrelevant when the country was being cleared, but even in this century, when most of the productive land had been cleared. successive governments held native timber prices down. This

was done with the laudable intention of making these woods available to everyone, but it meant that the momentum of cutting was maintained and much of the wood was wasted. The first steps towards lifting prices were taken last year, to encourage more discrimination in the use of native timbers and, at the same time, to offer an incentive to sawmillers to increase the output of higher grades, the Government last year indicated its wish that prices for higher grades be raised. Following discussions between the timber industry the Forest Service and the Department of Trade and Industry. agreement was reached on a 100 per cent increase in the existing margin between finishing and building grades, phased in over 12 months in three stages. The third increase was introduced on June 1. 1978. There have been claims and counterclaims about the misuse of native timbers. It is often alleged that up to 80 per cent of dressing grade timber is either painted over or covered from view, and therefore that the decorative value of the higher grades of rimu is lost. This allegation is based on a survey conducted by the Forest service in 1972 and 1973. The Forest Service has subsequently maintained that its figures are misleading, that the survey dealt, only with the use of native timber in dwellings, and that this represented less than half the total use of finishing and building grades at that time. The survey did not include native timber used in commercial buildings and manufactured goods such as furniture, and it is in these areas where most of the higher grades are put to appropriate use. Furthermore, the Forest Service now maintains that of the total quantity of native timber which went into housebuilding at the time of the survey, one-third was of dressing quality and at least half was not painted over or covered. Still, whatever percentage might be agreed upon, a!) parties concede that too much has been painted over or covered. In the five years since th e survey the finishing grades of timber have been used more appropriately. There is also recent evidence of less rimu being used for framing in new dwellings: and in Auckland the demand has been relativelv poor. Information collected suggests that native timbers are not being used for framing above floor level. This suggests that apart from an ever-increasing preference for radiata pine as a framing timber. the marginally cheaner pnee for rimu framing has been insufficient to favour its use. The lifting of price controls should reinforce this trend.