IMPORTED TIMBER

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1928, Page 2

IMPORTED TIMBER

N. Z. ’ S DISA DV A NTAG ES

STATEMENT BY SAWMILLERS

(Auckland Star.)

On November o we published a report' of heavy importations by the Aorangi of fruit cases in shook from Canada, and the query was advanced as to how it was, with the local timber trade in such a depressed state, that these cases could be landed in New Zealand at a price materially below the cost of the locally produced article. Mr Arthur Seed, secretary of the Dominion Federated Sawmillers Association, has supplied the following explanation: “In the first place,, most of the imported fruit cases, cheese crates and butter boxes, whether from Sweden or the Pacific Coast, are used as containers for the Dominion’s dairy produce and fruit export trade; and when these containers are re-exported, after having been made up, filled, transported and put to their full use within New Zealand, the users receive a drawback or refund of the customs duty paid on them on entry. This means that these containers are in effect duty free, and the local industry has no protection in respect to this class of timber. In the second place, the high cost of transport within New Zealand is a big factor in preventing the country sawmiller from competing against the imported article; for it casts little, if anything, more to freight these box shooks from Canada to New Zealand ports than it d'oes to send the rough timber for shooks) from mills on the Main Trunk and Rotorua lines to Auckland. Consequently, in the competition, for this trade the seaboard mills of the Pacific Coast and our country sawmills are virtually on even terms from the mill skids forward, and rt is in production before this point that the Pacific Coast and Swedish timber industries hold the great advantages.

“In both these countries the areas of forest available and the long term tenure systems (in some cases on a fc>eirpctual yeld basis) permit large scale operations; and, with certainty of long cutting life, the milling companies can safely lay out the heavy capital expenditure necessary to install and maintain the most up-to-date machinery. It is not that the New Zealand sawmillers will not install up-to-date and costly machinery, but they simply cannot do so with the Government policy of small cutting areas of bush with three of five years’ tenure.

“Many of the big milling undertakings on the Pacific Coast arc still cutting on a royalty of 6d to Od per 100; and we understand the Swedish royalties are in the vicinity of Is, whereas the royalties in New Zealand arc from 3s 6d to 5s (North Island), and from Is 6d to 2s 3d (South Island). Here is another insurmountable hurdle for the New Zealand miller.

“The greatest handicap of the New Zealand miller however, in meeting this outside competition is cost of logging and bush development. The ‘stands’ of timber on the Pacific Coast ■run from 50 to 150 thousand feet to the acre, and mostly pure stands of one, or at most two, milling species, with even-sized, easily handled logs. In New Zealand the better stands would run from eight to 2-1 thousand feet to the acre of mixed (very mixed) species, and far heavier logs (our timbers being of very much greater density) of very uneven size and nature. This simple difference in quantity per acre means that, all other bush factors being equal, it necessarily costs six times as much to develop and log our bush as that of the Pacific Coast. Six acres to produce the same quantity as one, means six times the length of tramways, six times the length of logging tracks, six times the number of hauler shifts (a costly item), six times the distance of walking for busbmen, six times the labour of sniffing ropes, etc., etc.

“Even the othore factors arc not equal. The average New Zealand wages are actually higher than those of the Pacific Coast and much higher than in Sweden. Our bush country is rougher and more broken by ridges and gullies; our timber is far heavier and more difficult to log and mill. Our logs (except kauri) won’t float and consequently we cannot take advantage of the rivers for log transport, and our trees are very uneven in size and length.

“It is only fair, however, to state that the Government is at last beginning to appreciate these difficulties, and the present Minister of Forests, and the Prime Minister, have given much thought to the problem which is continuing to receive attention by the Departments concerned, in conjunction with the Sawmillers’ Federation.”