BUILDING TIMBER

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 October 1912, Page 5

BUILDING TIMBER

| SCARCITY IN THE FUTURE, j DUTY ON IMPORTED TIMBER. I IBV TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.! j - ,_, _ J j DUNEDIN, This Day., j At the Builders’ Federation conference 'this morning, Mr S. F. Clark (Auckland) | made an able and lucid demonstration on 1 ihe necessity of the Government inaugural- , ing a continuous policy of afforestation, j not merely experiments. He pointed out that the Government returns on the decreasing use of timber in proportion to the 1 supply are not borne out by fact. In Eng- , land during the past forty years the use of timber had increased by 200 per cent., I while the population only increased 42 per cent., so science was not doing away with | the necessity for timber. ! The conference resolved that a memorial ibe presented to the Government asking j that Parliament take steps to insure a con- | tinuous supply of timber within the Do- | minion for future use; that the conference set up a committee to collect information as to the kinds of building timbers best suited to New Zealand soils and climate with a view to urging the Government to plant such timber, so that some provision ; may be made to meet the threatened scari city of New Zealand-grown timbers. It was also resolved that further efforts I be made to secure the reduction of rail- ' way freights on foreign timbers and other i building materials. | It was pointed out that the cost of (freight on building material necessary for j construction was sometimes nearly as much as the goods themselves, and the duty on foreign timbers was a great tax on farmers. Since the framing of the railway tariff, a variety of new material had been invented and charges were based on the highest rates, amounting, in some cases, to 33 per cent, move than similar materials in different form.