DUTIES ON TIMBER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20641, 13 August 1930, Page 10

DUTIES ON TIMBER.

Appeals to the Government by representatives of the timbei: industry have elicited a response that will be envied in other sections of domestic industry. Timber imported in rough logs has previously been admitted free of duty; it is now to be taxed at the rate of 25s a hundred cubic feet. The duty on baulk timber was increased in 1927 from 2s to 3s a hundred superficial feet; last month the Government proposed an increase to 5s 6d and now recommends a duty of 7s 6d. On other sawn timber, the duty has been increased in the same succession from 2s to 5s to 7s 6d and now to 9s 6d. Sawn dressed timber has been subject to increases from 4s to 7s 6d to Us 6d and now to 19s. Mr. Forbes has referred to the evidence of severe depression in the timber industry and has commended these liberal increments upon the Government's original proposals as necessar}' protection against foreign competition. He particularly emphasised the point that the object is not to protect the sawing. and dressing of imported timber but to encourage the production of native timber. It is doubtful whether this policy would be endorsed by a majority of the active interests in the timber trade or whether it is entirely in the national interest. In the first place, it assumes that, in quantity and variety, native resources of timber are' sufficient for the country's requirements: in respect of quantity alone, it is not long since there were authoritative warnings that exhaustion of the timber reserves was measurably near. On the other hand, if the protective duties are effective in excluding importations, it will only be by making the general cost so high that the exploitation of areas now commercially inaccessible, will be possible. Too heavy a price—in the shape of inflated building costs, and consequent depression in related industries—may be paid for the stimulation of native timber production, whereas effective tariff assistance might •be given >to the industry generally by restricting importation to timber requiring sawing and dressing in local factories. These considerations should be carefully weighed by Parliament before it sanctions the new duties, lest in trying to remedy the distress of the timber industry, it spreads a greater malady throughout the whole community.