BEECH TIMBER INDUSTRY

Southland Times, Issue 24521, 23 August 1941, Page 7

BEECH TIMBER INDUSTRY

MILLER’S REPLY TO MR STRANG (Special) DUNEDIN, August 22. A brief statement on the silver beech timber industry and the cheese crate pool was made today by Mr J. R. Wilson, saw miller, of Tawanui, who stated that so far as he was concerned his remarks would close his part in the recent controversy. “I have just been shown Mr R. M. Strang’s apologia for the Beech Marketing Authority’s action in charging 264 per cent, to the millers,” Mr Wilson said. “I need not reiterate that Mr Strang did not read my original statement correctly. Instead of making any further comment I shall leave it to the public to decide whether the Beech Marketing Authority is an efficient body when it finds it necessary to return to the miller 26£ per cent, less than the user pays. I have received congratulations from Christchurch to Tuatapere on my stand, both on beech marketing and the cheese crate pool. “I need not say much more about the beech industry,” Mr Wilson said, “for it will probably be taken up by a higher authority. In conclusion I would mention this point to show the existing state of affairs in the industry. In one of the congratulatory letters I was informed that the Goverment would probably not prosecute me for my attitude over the beech industry, but that it would take other measures to penalize my firm. The first act in this process has now started. The largest beech buyer in New Zealand—Bunting and Co., Ltd., brush manufacturers, of Christchurch —with whom my firm has considerable contracts, has received a letter telling it that it is liable to prosecution if it deals with us. That,” Mr Wilson said, “is what is going on in the industry.”