THE TIMBER COMBINE.

Evening Star, Issue 18716, 19 August 1924, Page 7

THE TIMBER COMBINE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—" Tho logical inference is that the Government has tho power but not the will to prevent exploitation.” This statement, which I quote from your timely article under the above heading, is abundantly justified by facts. The Reform Government lias never hesitated to exercise existing powers or to create new ones if necessary when it had a desire to act. For example, it found no difficulty in setting up a board and fixing wheat prices far above world parity, with the result that it is compelled to take perfunctory action against tho flour trust, that has grown up under its fostering care. It could adopt or reject its Statistician’s figures ns required for tho purpose of forcing a general reduction in wages. It could establish meat and dairy pools, whether the producers desired thorn or not. It could import hundreds of thousands of tons of expensive coal for the purpose of coercing tho miners into submission when they were making a fight for decent conditions. It could suspend tho Shipping Act when occasion required, so that incompetent persons might bo employed on shipboard as strike-breakers. Apparently tho only limits that it recognises to the exercise of despotic power arc those of political expediency. Therefore, when the Minister for Customs protests that tho Government ha.s no power to prevent exploitation by a timber ring, it would appear that its powers must ail be exercised in one direction—that of protecting vested interests. The Opposition has put_ forward two vague suggestions tor dealing with this monopoly —one, that the combine he prosecuted for restraint of trade; and the oilier, that some measure of State competition be set up. Regarding tho latter suggestion, your article refers disparagingly to the negative results of the State coal department's operations in controlling the price of coal. Put do not those results depend chiefly upon tho nature of the Administration? Tho Reform Government has never failed to express its hatred for any restrictions upon tho activities of private enterprise. Therefore, how can it be expected to sympathetically administer a State department which must, if efficiently managed, bo in active competition with privately-owned mines? If tho _ State Mines Department had been administered by a Government acting in tho interests of the people it would most certainly have controlled prices in tho interests of tho consumers. Tho department has been deliberately throttled rather than developed. There is no better coal in Now Zealand than Grey State, and tho Government. Lis greater opportunities for developing scientific production and transport than any private concern can possibly have; hut it lacks the will to act. In fact, it is determined that State industries shall not make a good showing wherever they conflict with private enterprise. But it is not necessary to ivait for the establishment of State saw-mills, however effective they might be if administered with sympathy and common sense. The Government has a remedy right to its hand if it had tho will to use it. A large proportion of tho timber milled in New Zealand is exported, sufficient to keep the homo market bare enough to maintain prices. Let tho Government prohibit the export of timber from New' Zealand, and lot it admit all foreign timbers and building materials free of duty. If it wore a Government operating in the interests of the people the acute demand for dwellings would have prompted it to adopt this procedure years ago. It is an outstanding fact in industry that the world’s supply of timber is rapidly diminishing, while the quantity consumed is constantly increasing. Under "these circumstances a Government that encourages export while it restricts importation of timber might reasonably be suspected of idiocy or worse, and tho members of the Reform Government may be credited with the possession of average intelligence.—l am, etc., A. B. Powell.

August 16,