THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 32

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

SERIOUS UNEMPLOYMENT THREATENED. WELLINGTON, January 31. In the midst of midsummer the unemployment position is more serious than for years past. A warning note is sounded by Mr A. Seed, secretai - ’- to the Dominion Sawmillers’ Federation, who says that unless things improve for the timber industry soon many men from the sawmills may Le added to those out of work to-day. Referring to a recent Labour deputation to five Ministers on the subject of the condition of the timber industry, and urging the appointment of a Royal Commission to investigate the troubles which affect it, Mr Seed said that, though the Sawmillers’ Federation had not been aware that his deputation was taking place, nor that such a request was to be preferred, the position was so acute that the sawmillers would probably welcome a Royal Commission as suggested, though they considered that the investigation work now being done by the Department of Industries and Commerce and the Forestry Department, together with the evidence which the federation would be able to give before the Tariff Commission when it sat in Wellington, would yield as much information as would be gained from the report of a Royal Commission. Reports from sawmilling centres indicated that there was certainly no improvement in the trade generally, and that the competition of imported timbers was as severe as ever, if not more so in respect of lower grades. Unless things improved there was no question that quite a number of mills would have to go out of commission. A reduction of output of roughly one-fifth, the curtailment of working time, and experiments in working short-handed had not relieved t! s position, and the indications were that a number of mills would have to shut down unless matters grew better reasonably soon. Probably

they would represent over 20 per cent, of those now working, and this would create a grave situation and accentuate unemployment during the cornin' winter, since the industry normally employed 10,000 men. A closure would throw out of work over 2000 men, who were mostly married and with homes established in the backblocks. A HIGH DUTY ESSENTIAL TAUMARUNUI, February 2. At a representative meeting of sawmillers and business men last night it was decided to form a local branch of the new Timber Industry Advancement League formed recently at Ohakune and Raetihi. It was decided also to call a public meeting to discuss the condition of the sawmilling industry, and to organise a petition to Parliament asking for restrictions on imported timber and to use a Tariff Commission in the King Country for the purpose of hearing evidence regarding the parlous state of the industry. It was stated at the meeting that the industry was faced with ruin unless a high duty was imposed on foreign timber. Another mill closed down here yesterday, and all the others are working short time. Millions of feet of timber are now stacked in the mills deteriorating and vainly- seeking a market.