TIMBER PRICES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22421, 18 May 1936, Page 8

TIMBER PRICES

PEOPOSED INCREASES ACTION BY GOVERNMENT "" REQUEST TO INDUSTRY • w — INVESTIGATION TO BE MADE —i—[BY telegraph—SPEClAL WELLINGTON. SundaJi A warning by the Wellington Tim® Merchants' Association that, as a resuit of recent industrial legislation, its price-list would be subject to alteration without notice has been followed by prompt action on the part of the Government, which has requested timber merchants to withhold any increase in prices until they can satisfy the Government that increases are nig. tificd.

After a meeting of the Cabinet yesfcerday the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage' said a special investigation would be made immediately into the reasons for increases in the price of butter boxes and proposed increases in other classes of timber. The Prime Minister added that the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, and the Commissioner of State Forests Hon. F. Langstone. had met sentatives of the sawmilling industry and had explained the Government's attitude toward any increase in tbe price of timber. It had been decit'pd that sawmillers would have to forwrrd to the Government at the earliest pos. sible moment figures to prove that prospective increases were justified. In the meantime, Mr. Savage continued, all sawmillers were being advised that they were not to increase their prices until their statements and figures had been examined by the Gov. ernment. . Letters were being sent to all timber merchants requsting thera to forward the necessary data to the Government, which wou'd carry out its investigation into the position as quickly as possible. Subsequently the Prime Minister in. dicated that similar action might fvt taken if necessary with regard to other industries. "We have made provision for shorter hours to operate unless the industries concerned can prove to the satisfaction of the Arbitration Court that they would prove impracticable," he said. "Similarly we will be quite justified in controlling prices, unless those concerned can prove to the satisfaction of the Government that increases are justified."

The action by the Wellington merchants, it was stated in Auckland vegterday, ivas probably due to the fact j that timber workers in the King Country had formed a union and the employers had made an agreement under which the minimum wage of the men was raised from Is 6Jd an hour to Is 10d. The agreement, which would operate from June 1 for three months, involved other concessions, and the result would be an increase in the cost of production. So far, it was stated, Auckland merchants had received no official notice of a rise in prices and | their rates in the meantime would remain unaltered.