AUSTRALIAN BUILDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22803, 10 August 1937, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN BUILDING

A STABLE INDUSTRY PROBLEM OF HIGHER PRICES Although the volume of trade in the Sydney building industry is but 70 per cent of the figures reached in 1930, it has remained stable at that point for the last 12 months and from the general standpoint is sound, according to an analysis made yesterday by Mr. R. T. Yandcrfickl, one of the principal men in the industry in New South Wales, who is a through passenger by the Aorangi for Vancouver and the Pacific Coast. On the other hand, he said, those in the trade wero slightly perturbed at tlic rising prices. In the past few months the timber trade had been affected by continued strikes on the Pacific seaboard, whence Australia bought 50 per cent of her softwoods from Canada, in terms of a reciprocal trade treaty between the two countries, and erratic supplies had brought a hardening in quotations.

All softwoods wore sent to Australia in logs and treated by special machinery, and for some months before the treaty was affirmed the owners of mills in New South Wales, which housed about £IOO.OOO worth of this particular type of plant, were anxious for their investments. All hardwoods were grown in Australia.

Mr. Yanderlield is to visit the Pacific Const to find out the prospects of a regular supply of softwoods, and probably to learn the extent to which the timber trade of that country will be affected by the industrial dislocation of the past few months. He is hopeful that the soundness of the industry in Australia will be maintained. Very little timber was bought by Britain from British Columbia two years ago, but in the past 12 months about 250 cargoes, representing about a thousand million feet, had crossed tho Atlantic to fulfil demands brought about by housing schemes and rearmament programmes, particularly for shipbuilding yards and military aerodromes. , . One result of this activity on Britain's part had l>een that available tramp steamers were booked to meet the sudden growth of trade, and with that had come increased freights 10 Australia.