"FOR THE DOMINION"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1924, Page 8

"FOR THE DOMINION"

"NOT FOR THE WORLD" • ;' i_ -■. . OUR TIMBER RESOURCES. "I. hope the time is not far distant— and here I want you to understand that I am speaking absolutely ior myself, and not -for the Government that I represent—wlienj the prohibition, of the export of timber will be by Statute, and not by Order-in-Council, so that it will require an Act of Parliament, and not one of the Government of the day to allow an alteration of the position obtaining in the industry," remarked the Hon. Sir Francis Bell, in opening the Dominion Conference., dealing with the use of timber in building construction, which commenced deliberations in Wellington this morning. • The Minister said he was sure the delegates had a more intimate knowledge of the subjects they had met to discuss than lie or the Department had. He expressed regret at the indisposition of Sir Heaton •Rhodes,. which prevented him from occupying properly the position occupied by the speaker. The matters to be discussed' were of grqat' interest to ' the delegates, as they were to the Government. There "had, in the pa^t two years, been a great development^ in the timber industry, consequent largely upon, the abnormal demand for housing and the still more abnormal expenditure of the : country's money—commonly called the Government's money—in this particular operation. ,Members of the conference must be considering and looking forward to what was going to happen when this-ab-normal demand ceased.. If the effect of such a cessation was to be a demand for 'assistance, or a request that the mills be allowed to-make a profit by expovting abroad, then he trusted that whoever the Government, it and the people would be united agrfinst the granting of such a demand. He reminded the conference that the. institution of the Forestry Service and the prohibition of exports were acts of the National Government, not of any one party, and he'hoped it would be one of the lasting benefits conferred upon the Dominion. The timber must be conserved for the Dominion. >That did not mean that timber fit to be cut should not be cut, but the timber in New Zealand was their heritage, and not the heritage of the world, and the'danger of the position was apparent to those who studied it. He wanted them to understand what was still to come> and: that, the matters to be discussed from that point of view—the utilisation in New Zealand of the products of Nature, and the preservation for New Zealand of the benefits of the forests.