THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19584, 14 September 1925, Page 13

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

POSITION ON WEST COAST “The timber industry on the West Coast is in a bad way.’’ With this remark a well-known Gatlins sawmiller prefaced a statement on tho subject of sawmilling on the Coast. Several of the large mills in that district, he said, had been compelled to close down indefinitely owing to lack of orders. Tho white pine mills were still working, but only because facilities for shipping and export enabled the millers to dispose of their production in Australia. The rod pine mills, in particular, were unable to carry on while the. market was so dead. The cost of production of late had increased considerably, and many of the companies were compelled to convey their logs Long distances to the mills —in some cases tramlines had been constructed 'for 20 miles into tho back country. When it was known that these tramlines cost from £lO to £lB per chain, it could easily be seen that the cost of production must necessarily be high. Tho real cause, however, of the slump in the timber trade on the West Coast, and also in other parts of Now Zealand, was the flooding of the market with hemlock from American mills. The imports of foreign timbers into New Zealand totalled about 70 million superficial feet per annum. That quantity represented the annual output of 70 mills in our own country. . Moreover. tho imported hemlock was a much inferior product to the Now Zealand red pine, either from the builder’s or joiner’s viewpoint. Tho Catlins sawmiller said that to his mind there was something wrong somewhere. Here was Now Zealand importing an inferior product, and by so doing jeopardising a local industry. America was flooding New Zealand markets with her tirubev while on the other hand she was placing on New Zealand timber an almost prohibitive dutv. This state of affairs was allowed to exist unchallenged, to the detriment of a local industry which employed thousands of workmen the country over, and paid more in wages than am- other industry in the Dominion. This 1m considered to he a matter for serious consideration by the Associated Millers’ Federation, which should ask the Government to revise the tariff on imported timber. The future of the industry In the Dominion depended upon such legislation, while at present the position was simply aggravating the already disturbed affairs in the labour market. TRADE FLACK TN OTAOO AND SOUTHLAND. At a large and representative meeting in Invercargill of the sawmillers of Southland and Otago, it was resolved to take steps to reduce the working tinre of tho mills by one day per week, owing Jp the slackness of trade, accentuated hv the everincreasing importations of foreign timber, such n.s American hemlock. It was mentioned that a. vessel was due at Dunedin next week with 1,000,000 feet of American timber.