THE TIMBER TRADE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19967, 8 December 1926, Page 4

THE TIMBER TRADE.

SLACK IK WAIKATO. A PLEA FOR PROTECTION. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, December 7. The sawmilling section of the New Zealand Bulletin for November contains reports that : n the Waikato the timber trade is very slack, ami that, in addition to the competition of imported timbers in the main market,!Auckland), the Railway Department’s sawmill at Erankton "is competing very severely for wbat little local trade is offering.’' It is also stated: ‘'lnformation has reached us that some time at the beginning of last month (October) Government found it necessary to dismiss 31 timber workers from the Railway Department's sawmill at Mumaku nving to accumulation of lowergrade stocks, which could not be marketed in competition with imported timbers, and wc have since heard that this mill has been closed down altogether. “If the Government finds it necessary to dismiss so many hands and thus augment the unemployment problem, owing to the competition from imported timbers, surely the Ministers should need no further convincing of the absolute necessity for more r -; :onable Customs protection for the ii nlar industry.”