CEMENT SUPPLY

Grey River Argus, 8 September 1945, Page 7

CEMENT SUPPLY

Lack of Reserves

“Recently, we were forced to import some 3000 tons of cement from Australia,” said Hon. R. Semple in Parliament. “This was done to give us a small reserve in the North Island, but 3000 tons is only one week’s supply for the North Bland. “It might be asked why have men not been withdrawn fi;om the services and directed into the bush to increase the supply of timber? This could have been done at the expense of the war effort, but if you secure more timber then you need more concrete, more baths, more ranges, and more of everything that goes to the making up of a house. It is useless having an ample' sto.’k of one material and a shortage in all of the others. It is necessary to keep a balance and if we had drawn xnen out of the S3.i vi ’vs to get more timber out of the bush, it follows that we would have had to wiN'draw additional men to bxJld up the man power in all the ancillary building trades, ’'■'his, of course, was Our most pres.img ’ask is L. get the num buck into ihe bush and into industry just as quickly is this m.ty be done. No con’i!’.itti. d .’., no conferences, x.o Royal Commissions, can contribute any real assistance unless th.? real tljlflculty is eliminated. We have no resei’ve of man power and we have no reserve of materials. The shelves and yards of the merchants are empty. We are working on a hand-to-mouth basis. Fox' the efficient running of any undertaking it is essential that it should have a reserve supply of whatever- commodity is necessary to the functioning of that undertaking. An army cannot function without its reserves, a gas company’s service to its consumers will fail for lack of reserves of coal —a railway service will break dowgi fox' the same reason. Illustrations could be quoted ad infinitum. “We endeavoured to conserve timber by building in concrete.. We immediately ran up against the difficulty of shortage of supplies of cement. That shortage is caused through lack of coal, and through lack of man power. If the shortage of cement could be overcoxne we could increase construction in concrete, but it does not appear likely that that shortage will be overcome for some considerable time yet.