TIMBER INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 262, 1 August 1929, Page 9

TIMBER INDUSTRY

PUTTING THEIRsHOUSE IN ORDER OBJECT OF EFFICIENCY BILL The reasons which induced the New Zealand Sawmillers’ Federation to bring the Timber Industrial Efficiency Bill before the House were explained by the secretary ( Mr. A. Seed) in an address before the Economic Society last evening. Mr. Seed stated that the Bill had been based on the existing statutes as applied to the control of the meat, dairying, and fruit industries, and the efficient regulation of the dairy industry provided for in the Dairy Industries Act. Protesting at statements that the Bill was another instance of Government interference in business, Mr. Seed said the Bill had emanated solely from the representatives of the industry, and it was based entirely on their considered views—having the strictest regard to the welfare of the sawmilling industry, and of those served thereby. Aims of the Measure. “It has been suggested by those whose interests are not identical with industrial development, 1 ” continued Mr. Seed, “that because it may provide for some form of Government control, it is wholly opposed to the public Interests. The measure aims distinctly to acquire statutory power to control ourselves, so far only as is necessary to effect greater efficiency in the sawmilling Industry. The power to so control would be absolutely in the handse of those engaged in the sawmilling industry. The decision as to whether the Act, if passed, should even then operate, lies with a very substantial! majority of the sawmillers in the Dominion. Further, there is provision that, if so desired by the industry, the Act shall become Inopetrative, following a ballot for so determining that question. What more effective means for security could be devised ? More Immediate Benefits. In respect of the more immediate benefits that might be looked for as a result of the operations of the Timber Industrial Efficiency Bill, Mr. Seed said, the late Government had intimated that, if sawmillers combined for efficiency in the public interests, then all the remaining Crown timber and State forests would be treated as a reserve for the industry; thus affording greater security to capital and labour employed in the industry. It was further intimated that, conditional upon efficient organisation of the industry, Government policy would be opposed to the introduction and use of foreign timber—except for special purposes. Indirectly it would most probably remove the menace of that senseless and disastrous competition, which was so often indulged in by those others who, owing to their incompetence in respect of accountancy, went beyond all bounds in their desire to secure volume of trade, regardless of values, and in the process of gaining wisdom, while incidentally losing others’ money, in addition to their own, plunged the industry into those oftrecurring periods of depression. To those whom the industry served—the consumers, the users of the industry's product—the Bill offered an assurance that their needs would be satisfied in a manner hitherto not possible. To those outside the pale of the industry—neither producers, distributors, nor users of the industry’s products—whose interests were only served by a continuance of the commercial incompetence of industrialists, the Bill might conceivably spell disaster, concluded Mr. Seed. Their influence would always be directed against any organisation that tended to industrial efficiency, and it would be vain to expect other than their opposition. Such opposition, however, merely emphasised the greater need for industrial efficiency, and its vehemence marked the degree to which such opponents must ever fail to fill any useful part in a wellordered community. There was a good attendance at the lecture, including many interested in the timber industry. After an interesting discussion, a vote of thanks was passed to ili. Seed for hi* address,