RESTRICTION SOUGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23340, 8 May 1939, Page 13

RESTRICTION SOUGHT

JAPANESE OAK IMPORTS USE OF SOUTHLAND BEECH DECLINE OF EXPORT TRADE [BV TELEGRAPH OWN CORRESPONDENT] DTJNEDDC, Saturday The silver beech industry in Otago and Southland, which pays £IOO,OOO a year in wages, £IO,OOO annually in railway freights and £7OOO a year in shipping charges, is to-day facing a crisis. Its export trade to England amounting to millions of superficial feet a year has completely disappeared, and the Australian market, which for years has absorbed a high proportion of the annual output, is taking progressively smaller consignments every month. The industry has but one alternative at the present time. The local market must be exploited to the fullest extent.

In an interview Mr. R. M* Strang, chairman of directors of the Co-opera-tive Beech Company, of Southland, stated that in the opinion of the large body of millers in Otago and Southland, the only solution of the problem was a restriction of imports from Japan. In 1935, according to Mr. Strang, the imports of Japanese oak were 1,550,000 ft. In the following year this figure increased to 2,690,000 ft. In 1937 the tally was 3,518,000 ft., and it was estimated'that last year the importations totalled over 4,000,000 ft. "Most people," Mr. Strang said, "have the idea that they are buying good old English oak when they buy oak furniture, but they are actually buying Japanese oak, which is a very inferior product indeed. "The figures I have quoted," he said, "should show very definitely the huge local market available to the Otago and Southland industry provided some form of protection is given New Zea-land-grown timber. For every purpose that Japanese oak is used silver beech could be as profitably employed."