BUTTER AND TIMBER

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 90, 13 October 1920, Page 7

BUTTER AND TIMBER

CONTRAST IN TREATMENT.

The contrast between the treatment of lawmillers and butter producers was emphasised, this morning by the secretary of the Dominion Federated Sawmillers' Association (Mr. W. T. Irvine) in tha course of an interview. "The rise in the.price of butter," said Mr. Irvine, "again brings prominently before the public the attitude taken up by the National Dairy Association, respecting thie stoppage of the export of white pine. The Dairy Association approached the Government to obtain cheap butter boxes at the. expense .of ,the sawmiller, and, al-though-the outcry did not result in a. complete stoppage, it led to the restriction of export of both white pine and building .timber. In, addition to this restriction local prices for all timbers arei regulated bj the Board of Trade, the local price bearing no relation to the exportprice. "Contrast this position with that oil the dairy; farmer, who, while advocating restriction of price for the sawmiller, demands the world's market price for his product sold in the Dominion, ajid contrast it with- the position of the flourmiller,, whose wheat is subsidised', to edible him to sell at a fixed price. There is nothing of that sort with the sawmiller,,who is'limited as to export, arid ib restricted as to local price without sublidy or compensation of any kind—all for the benefit of the community. The ■awmiller is therefore compelled to be:ome ft public benefactor, and, while payBg heavy taxation in the ordinary sourse, is mulcted in the difference beiween the export price and the local jrifce. That implies double taxation. Is ihifi the Government's square deal, or in my..sense fair, play? The principle of he payment, of. subsidies I do not desire o discuss for the present, but if it holds [ood for the butter producer, it must, n common fairness, apply to the sawailler."