WELLINGTON NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1362, 28 May 1895, Page 5

WELLINGTON NOTES.

IFROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] THE TIMBER TRADE. The next dive in the dark the Seddon Government intends to take is a revolution of the Saw Milling industry. This idea has been fermenting for some time, and only came to a head at the Premier's meeting at Waitara, where he gave official pronouncement to the scheme. There are no sawmills at Waitara, which, little sea-side resort, depends chiefly on its Freezing works when they are in work, and in hopes of them starting again when idle. Therefore the State Saw Mills insanity went better there than it would have done in Stratford or Inglewood where the industry is important and understood, and finds employment for scores of men. Timber merchants, who have spent the best part of their live 3 in the trade, assert that there is hardly a mill in the colony paying its way, and that most of them are being run at a loss. But these traders must be taught a lesson. They are employers, and employers are not in love with the government of which Messis Seddon and Reeves are the chief ornaments, by reason of the friction caused or attempted by Labor Bills of irritating tendencies as between master and man. Moreover, there is still an army of devoted supporters still awaiting their rewards for services rendered at the general elections. They are getting clamorous. I know of at least three ardent Liberals who once ran saw mills, but who had to succumb to inexorable fate and go up for a whitewashing process, who are now awaiting appointments as Inspectors in the new department. Besides all this there is that expensive expert in London, Mr Freyberg, who writes voluminously on the almost universal anxiety there is in Europe and America for our woods. Europe, he says, is yearning for the material wherewith to construct furniture and street paving. The United States is hungry for New Zealand railway sleepers, and our saw dust has enormous probabilities. All this sounds very funny when we cannot help noticing that at the Government buildings, where extensive alterations have been going on for some months, Australian timber is being used even for internal work; that Australian sleepers are being imported by the railway department; that the Harbor Board is having its extensions constructed chiefly with the same material; and that a private jetty in Wellington harbor is following suit and the freight by steamer from Australia is only 3<j per 100 ft. JN jw, if there is one industry by which the average ont-o-work could be utilised to advantage more than another, it would be by putting that unfortunate individual on the Crown L?nds, and allow him to split sleepers iu the forests of Westland, Southland, the Marlborough Sounds, or anywhere else, where sieepers could be procured for the mere labor, near to a seaport or a railway line. There are hundreds of capable men in all these places who would gladly do this work for small wages on contract, and prefer it to wearing out their hearts and self-respect; by dancing attendance at labor bureaus, begging for favors from supercilious counter-jumpers in office. But, Ho! Jtieady Cash was found by our Democratic Government to send to Sydney for our sleepers, and our unemployed here can watch them being landed from the steamers, and they make emphatic remarks —which is natural. And, this State Saw Mill Scheme opens up a new vista of probable difficulties to which the non-payment of Cheviot rents ia a fleabite. Because the owner of a saw mill is usually a man of more than ordinary capacity. He must, or ought, to know all the ins and outs of his business in every detail—from the selection of a bush which will pay for working down to the lore of the bullock driver who hauls the logs. He ought to know, and generally does know, how to repair a steam engine, mend a belt and keep his circular saws sharp and true ; and, above all he must have the commercial knowledge and instincts without which all else is worthless. How then, in the name of all that is reasonable can these and the thousand and one other details of a complicated business be governed or regulated by State —especially when it is intended that the unemployed shopmen, clerks, and printers who are swarming about the streets of Wellington are to be put to work with axe, crosscut and circular saws. An ambulance corps, a resident Burgeon, and a coroner will be indispensable for the equipment of each saw mill camp. Saw milling is like any other business. If private enterprise and experience fail to make it pay or extend its operations outside the Colony, it is simply flying in the face of common sense for th» State to attempt it. Of course the result of experiment will be an expensive one to the Colony, because, to enter into competition with the legitimate traders in the industry (which if not flourishing, is employing thousands of men and supporting their families) will certainly shut up some mills and send the men adritt ; then an unfair competition between genuine traders and bounty fed mills, and finally a collapse of the Government slaughter houses, for they will be little else. Messrs Seddon and Reeves may consider themselves adepts in State craft, but they are babes in the intricacies of saw milling. There is, however, one detail which may be suitable to their conceptions. Their expert, Mr Freyberg, suggested that something might be done with saw-dust. We agree with him. The bye-product could be utilized through the agency of the "deserving unemployed" in stuffing dolls and pincushions. No great outlay would be necessary ; they could not hurt themselves or each other as they would if axes and circular saws were given them to work with, very few inspectors would be required and the unemployed and the saw dust would assimilate. THAT LOAN. Now that common-sense people have recovered from the first delirium of delight, caused by the Treasurer's success in borrowing a million and a-half [of which LI ,400,000 only will reach the Colony, owing to deductions for discount and expenses] to lend to one particular class of people, and for which every one has to bear the share of a further load of L 45,000 a year piled on his already overburdened back, there seems to be an idea floating in the air that the gigantic and highly successful operation is not going to be all beer and skittles for the

Government, which has so impudently thrown to the wind its borrowing pledges and policy, and devised a new departure which the wisest heads cannot see the end of. It seems to me that the great Loan department will find itself remarkably short of trumps before their hand is played out. Already we hear complaints from would-be borrowers on undoubted security, who desire to obtain loans — uot on statutory three-fifths, but on onehalf, or even less, of the assured valuation of their lands ; but they cannot be accommodated. When an applicant asks for LSOO, he is offered L 25 0; if L3OO, Ll5O is proposed, and so on. Now, it goes without saying that, if a farmer has ample security and wants a loan, it is reasonable to suppose that he will borrow as little as he can do with, and that anything less than he asks for will be of no use to him. Therefore, the Lending Board, when offering half a loaf to a farmer when his vital needs cannot be satisfied with anything else than a whole one, is simply fooling the very people its object was to assist and relieve. But, even that is not the worst feature about this business. The Board refuses to entertain loans from certain districts which seem to be. tabooed. The valuers will not go to inspecc properties in these districts, but the Board continues to receive applications and accept fees all the same ; maybe, the disappointed applicants will get their guineas back if they understand how to untie knots.in red tape. The fact is that the dissatisfaction throughout the Colony is, and will be, exactly iu proportion as the million and a half is to the forty odd millions owing on mortgage in New Zealand. No man will care to pay 8, 6, or 5h per cent, if his neighbor can make easier terms. And to still further aggravate the disappointed farmers, no reasons are given for the refusals . Complaints are coming in from all quarters, and members, whose adhesion to Government is unquestionable, complain, alike with Oppositionists, that the Cheap Money scheme is not the blessed relief to their constituents it was prophesied to be. Far from being Balm of Gilead, it threatens to be a veritable whip of scorpions to the Seddon Government.