SAWMILLING PROBLEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 January 1928, Page 10

SAWMILLING PROBLEMS

ORDINARY BUILDING TIMBER

Auckland sawmillers start the New Year with an outlook somewhat clouded by.a persistent.prqblem which they have -been ,pnable to leave behind them with .192.7’ Stocks of “ordinary building” timber are likely to continue to accumulate unwanted, while -available supplies of hearty quoted at a necessarily high figure, are cleared only 'in the face of lower-priced importatioris.fof equal grade Oregon, redwood.and cedar..." The position arises from a combination of pircumstgnces.. New Zealand timbers cut a very low proportion of heart, varying- from. 10 -per cent, to 20 per, cent, of the total jog; The unequalled quality of’ what .there is accounts for .the good demand for it ,in spite of foreign, competition. At the same .time, under the .building regulation’s enforced, by most -Jo- • cal bodies in the North -Island,., and particularly in the city of Auckland, the amount ’of heart ..timber "which must be- used •in wooden buildings amounts to as much as 60 per cent. This comprises all outside .timber, foundations, plates,.joists.and flooring. Considering the large amount of heart timber required, it is not surprising that large quantities of the lowerpriced imported article are used. Sawmillers recognise that owing to the Dominion’s limited supply of this class of timber, importations are inevitable, at any rate, eventually. The

fact that they favoured ; the duty as- ’ sessed on a basis of superficial feet /instead of on an ad valorem basis is . cited as showing that they approved .the lesser measure pf protection granted against the higher-priced material. That even foreign “ordinary building” timber can be landed in Auckland at a lower price than the local product is a matter of more concern .‘to .sawmillers, especially considering the millions of feet that lie stacked at King Country mills. It is in this connection, it is considered. in some quarters, that a slight increase in the foreign import duty would turn the scale in 'favour of the New Zealand product. One sawmiller yesterday expressed the opinion that if the present duty of 5/- 100 ft. (which applies to most softs of sawn timber) was advanced to 7/-, the increase would be sufficient to effect this object. Another means would be to reduce the railway freight rates. As an instance of the advantages under which timber was .imported was quo.ted the freight from Ohakune to Auckland, which at 5/11 per 100 ft., was approximately the same as the cost of bringing timber from Van couver.

REVISING THE REGULATIONS. It is felt that these difficulties would become insignificant if the local bodies would revise their building regulations to allow the use of a greater proportion of the ordinary grades. “If .they would permit the use of clean, seasoned 0.8. timber,” said one saw.miller, “the position of the sawmillingindustry in the Auckland Province would be very different. It is only since 1917 that the present restrictions have been in force, and nobody has any quarrel with the durability of houses built prior to that.

. ‘.‘The tact is the by-laws call for z a larger percentage of heart than New ..Zealand trees will produce. At the same time there is plenty of so-called second-grade timber in the country that would stand as long as ever a wooden house is meant to stand.” , - -That -the Government had an open mind on the matter was shown by the fact that in the South Island, where extensive use of “ordinary building”, timber was permitted, State Advances could be obtained on the .houses just as readily as in Auckland. “No amount of reorganisation will turn sap into ‘heart.’ ” this sawmiller concluded,, referring to the suggestion of the’Prime Minister that sawmillers should concentrate on a. revision of grading methods and prices rather than expect any further measure of protection than the last increase of 3/- a 100 ft. in the duty. The interesting suggestion that instead of the existing building regulations all houses should be graded according to the timber they contained was put forward by another timber merchant. A suggested basis was that number one grade should contain all heart, in number two all the exterior and foundations should be of heart, and number three all “ordinary building.” A certificate would be issued

by the. building inspector, and this would be used for all assessment, purposes, and' would constitute a splendid guarantee to house purchasers. The same - speaker - contended’'that private millers were the victims of unfair competition from Government mi!l3, which undersold them, although their production costs were., much greater than,thos.e of private concerns.' 2