THE AMERICAN TIMBER TRADE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9304, 18 November 1901, Page 4

THE AMERICAN TIMBER TRADE.

♦— "I think I might almost say that I never saw a timber mill till I left New. Zealand," said Mr Leyland, of , the well-known Auckland firm of Lelyand and O'Brien, timber-millers, to an Auckland Star reporter, on his return to that city from a visit to the United States. "The moat up-to-date 'mills I saw were m Minneapolis, a great milling centre, where, the science of converting logs into timber perhaps reaches the acme of perfection. The timber is of scarcely any value, but the way m which it is handled is simply marvellous. The men work 60 hours a week, against our 47, and they work at a^terribly high pressure." Then, as to wages, are they proportionately high? "Well, a few of the head men get higher wages, ranging from 2| to 3 dollars per day, but the laborers get the some rate, as our men. But the men handle about ten times us much timber as do our men. The rapidity with which they put it through is simply amazing. The timber goes from one saw to the other so fast that if the men stopped for a moment they would be- lamed. The speed at which the work goes through does not admit of the men estopping to think how a log can be best- cut, so that a man must be very quick-witted, to retain the position of head man. Then the working man does not have altogether the best of times* . His life is simply slavery. I have seen the men, when the dinner-hour bell sounded, drag themselves wearily away from the saws. What they were like at 6 o'clock I don't know. In one mill that I visited there was not a man over 40 m the mill, for the pace was too fast for the older hands. The" working men have not time to cultivate gardens and endeavor to beautify their homes, nor do they seek to acquire ' their own residences. They spend all the money they earn, and such a thing as a post office savings bank is unknown. Out here, although we always expect good results, we sometimes put the man behind the dollar ; m America they never do. In the mills I visited the men are not allowed to speak to visitors, or to take a snack while their machines are running, though they may have nothing to do but to watch them. The machines used m first-class mills are tremendously powerful. In a small mill, m which a New Zealand firm would spend £4000 m engines and machines, an American firm would lay out £30,000. Many of the machines have separate engines for working them, and when I tell you that some of the belts m use are from 18 to 24 inohes m width, you can guess the power behind them. Whilst we manipulate timber more quickly m Auckland than m any part- of the Southern Hemisphere, we have not yet learned the A B C of the art.. I inspected the leading sash and door factory m Minnesota, where again I found the men working at high pressure. I asked the manager how the results were achieved, and he informed me that they got the machinery into "good working order, and then set the men to put up a record output. That record was taken as a standard, and any man falling below it was asked the reason. Failing a satisfactory explanation, "his head goes off," as the American slang phrase puts it. or. Do you think the American system likely to be adopted here? No. The capital cost would be so great that, with the limited supply of New Zealand timber, the forests would be cut out before this would be repaid. Our men, too, would refuse to work under such conditions. The short-hour system does not seem to be very favorably received m America, though there is a rising agitation m favor of reduction is there much Sunday work done? In some places they have lost the Sunday altogether, and when I was m St-atMe,. house-building was going on, shops M-ere open, steamers and railway trucks were discharging, and a wharf was being constructed. But m all that I saw I could not help but admire the business capacity of the inhabitants, .and I must say* that I was immensely struck with all that I saw. • In Canada they do, not work at such high pressure, said Mr Leyland, m conclusion, and m England they work on much the same system as we do here, only that they handle smaller timber.