TIMBER EXPORT

Southland Times, Issue 22993, 12 September 1936, Page 11

TIMBER EXPORT

PROHIBITION NOT FAVOURED

A suggestion from Hawke’s Bay that the Government should be asked to prohibit export of timber from New Zealand in order to protect the Dominion’s timber resources, did not find favour at a meeting of directors of the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association yesterday. A letter from the Hawke’s. Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Association had asked support in representations to the Government that all timber exports should be prohibited, and had given arguments in support of its contention that the New Zealand forest lands were fast approaching diminishing point.. One member said that the position was felt keenly in Hawke’s Bay where there was a big shortage of forest land. Others said that the silver beech export industry, just beginning to be built up, was too valuable to be stopped. The position vzas true as it concerned the supply of white pine, but there seemed no likelihood of any shortage of beech. It was decided that the association’s representations to the Government should take the form of a resolution that the Dominion’s timber resources be conserved by adequate tree-plant-ing, and that no reference should be made to any restriction of exports.