TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 20 January 1927, Page 5

TIMBER INDUSTRY.

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. REVISION OF TARIFF. iHI IKI.KORAI-H PRESS ASSOCIATION ./ WELLINGTON, Jan. 19. A deputation from the Alliance of Lalioiir, the New Zealand Trades and. i.abour Councils’ Federation and the Aew Zealand Labour Party, approached the Ministers ot Customs (trie Hon. ivowie Stewart), industries and Commerce (.the Hon. A. i>. McLeod), and of - Forestry (lion. O. J. Hawlxen) this afternoon, and urged the Government to set up immediately a Royal Commission to inquire into the position and working of the timber industry of the Dominion. The Ministers of Labour and of internal Affairs were also present. Lengthy draft proposals in connection with the scope of the inquiry were presented, asking for information in which detail concerning the organisation of the industry in New Zealand, tne capital invested, the total wages paid, the number of mills operating, the profits and dividends of companies, tne stocks of timber at mills and in the yards, the detailed cost of production of imported timber and the actual landed cost, selling prices, etc. „It was submitted that the present menace to the industry might be largiy due to uneconomical and inefficient methods, as an enormous proportion of waste between the bush aim the consumer was admitted on all sides. The deputation asked for the facts to be elicited so as to enable the waste to be eliminated and reorganisation effected. Replying to the deputation, Mr. Stewart said the Government had realised the great importance of. the problem affecting the industry. Lor some time past the Government had been collecting information on practically all the questions involved in the representations made by the deputation. He said ho had foreseen when it was agreed that the tariff should be revised that one of the biggest questions that would loom up was in connection with the timber industry. The Minister has conferred with the Minister of Industries and Commerce, and the Minister in charge of the Forestry Department, and they had agreed that the question was such a large one that special investigation should be made immediately without waiting for the actual sitting of the Tariff Commission. Officers, of those departments, therefore, had been working for some months past gathering all the information possible which primarily would be required in considering the tariff. He could see no reason why that information should not be used for the purpose of a special report on the broader aspects of the subject apart from tariff matters.

The Minister in Charge of the Department of Industries and Commerce said he thought the commission would serve a very useful purpose. Mr. Hawken pointed out that in America the services of experts were solicited, and on their reports decisions were made. A layman was not capable of doing the work of an expert. Moreover, to get at. the real facts access must be had to confidential information.

Mr. Stewart said he would consider the deputation’s suggestions with his colleagues.

STATE SAWMILL CLOSES DOWN. LABOUR MEMBERS’ PROTEST. AUCKLAND, Jan. 19. The following protest against the closing down of the State sawmills at Mamaku, has been sent to the Minister by the Auckland' Labour reubers of Parliament: “In view of the serious unemployment problem already existing, and the fact that the State mill must have a steadying effect on timber prices as well as doing its share towards supplying the market, which is now taking some of its supplies from American sources, we desire to record our protest against handing over the New Zealand market to timber companies overseas, while our own men are shelving employment. A conservative estimate of the unemployed in Auckland at present # is about 1009, and we trust that the Government will move in this matter immediately.’’