SAWMILLING INDUSTRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 April 1943, Page 2

SAWMILLING INDUSTRY

SHORTAGE of labour. Discussing the West Coast sawmilling industry with a “Star” representative to-day, Mr. J. S. Robertson ’(Chairman of tile West Coast Sawmillers’ Association) stated that the big problem facing . the millers was the shortage of skilled labour. The mills were working -to capacity on defence orders, butter-box timber and barrel staves, he added, and the cutting of timber for merchants’ : yards had been practically eliminated. I “There is an acute shortage of 1 men,” said Mr. Robertson, “more particularly bushmen and tramlay- ■ ers and some of the smaller units i are working with ‘scratch’ crews, i The losses of men to Forestry Units 1 in the early stages of the war were severe and though in recent months ! there has not been a drain on the ’ manpower of the industry for the i forces, the shortage of skilled men . is accentuated by the fact that there i are many men in the industry, parI ticularly bushmen, who are getting ( past their prime. The wet season ! experienced has meant a lot of sick--1 ness and even where men have not I had to go off work their output has I in many cases been adversely affectI ed. In some cases, again, men have j been compelled to leave their jobs I through illness, with no-one avail- : able to replace them. ' “Despite these factors,” he continued, “production has kept up remarkably well in the last 12 months, considering all the circumstances and the conditions under which the I men have worked. The sawmill I workers have been making a real i war effort. There have been practically no disputes in the industry to hold up the output with the result that the mills on’the West, Coast are putting out an average of 5,000,000 feet of timber, of all classes, a month. Production for last year, from January to December, practically reachled the 61,000,000 mark, which was only 321,000 feet less than the figures for the previous year.” .