AMERICAN TIMBER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 13 December 1920, Page 6

AMERICAN TIMBER

NEW ZEALANDER'S IMPRESSIONS

A DROP IN Tim,. MARKET

A Wellington business man,. Mr C. Odlin, who is connected with the timber trade, has returned from a trip to America with a number of interesting points, for New Zealand timber users. He says that enterprising Americans have now control over the majority of the Canadian milis. In June and July this year the lumber trade was buoyant, due to the vast demands from the East, largely from China and Japan, but in September the bottom began to fall out of the market, and many of the big mills closed down. The object of this seemed to be to restrict trade and hold up prices rather than to go on cutting to bring down prices. Some of the mills which ceased operations were cutting as much as from 500,000 ft to 600,000 ft a day, employing about 300 hands. A number of men were thrown out of employment. Labour conditions were bo vastly different there from here that such trifles as that would not be felt; the men would mare out east to be absorbed in manu•%*uring industries there. Trices came down towards the end of September, but ttie shortage of shipping made it difficult to take advantage of this. A« far as New Zealand and Australia were concerned there were practically no chips available. Mr Odlin «eeured the Union Company's chartered vessel Rona for a cargo, Jbut this boat was. held up at San Francisco by a strike of the seamen refusing to sail unless they received an additional 25 per cent in_ wages because of the ben- ? n? bein S carried. Oregon pine could he bought in America to-day at 35 do!-' S™ * fctorosand feet', and freight to New Zealand, when procurable, cost another 35 dollars a thousand, making * the landing cost about 70 dollars. Before the war, said Mr Odlin, we used To buy it at fws^o. eight to twelve dollars, and pay fvjoxn 14 to 15 dollars freight. Then ,]?ew Zealand Customs duties added considerably to the expenses. American doors, for instance —some factories were turning out as ™an£ as 5000 a day—had to pay duty or 10s each. They were a good article, better perhaps than those made by hand, and were used largely in the cheaper class of eo€tajze in New Zealand. Three-ply panelling, also an Ttoierican specialty mcd largely over here, had to pay a duty of from 12s to 15s per 100 ft. It could be obtained from Canada at less duty, but Canada's manufacturers were negligible ~"^e American lumber forests." said Mr Odlin, *'were .really wonderful I motored through one redwood' forest in I -California for 150 miles all the way on -a concrete road. Our forests "here could not compare with them There was no replanting necessary, the. firs replanting themselves, The greatest care, however, was exercised in their preservation, and the utmost precautions enforced against destruction by devastating fires. The system they . <vaopt shows the American mind/ said v Mr Odlm. "All through the summer ■aeroplanes wheel „overhead, observing for fires. Should any break put extinguishing bombs are dropped. Along the roads and highways are posted consoicuous notices informing the public that the law empowers foresters, *of whom there are many, to call upon any <me at any time to assist in fighting fives if they occur." *