CONTROL OF SILVER BEECH TIMBER

Southland Times, Issue 24685, 5 March 1942, Page 6

CONTROL OF SILVER BEECH TIMBER

VALIDITY OF NOTICE ATTACKED The validity of the Beech Marketing Notice 1940 and its amendment, which provided that all silver beech timber milled in Otago and Southland should be sold only through the agency of the Co-operative Beech Company of Southland, Ltd., was attacked by Mr F. B. Adams, of Dunedin, during the hearing of an appeal in the Supreme Court yesterday. The appeal was against two convictions recorded by Mr R. C. Abernethy, S.M., against Andrew Sharpe, Ltd., sawmillers, of Tawanui, South Otago, for breaches of the notice in selling timber other than through the Co-operative Beech Company, which had been appointed the Beech Marketing Authority by the Timber Controller. At the beginning of the hearing on Tuesday, Mr Adams said the appellants did not deny selling timber, but wanted an interpretation of the law to ascertain whether they had done right or wrong. Once the timber • passed into the hands of the Beech Marketing Authority the miller lost control of it entirely, Mr Adams said. The millers were bound to supply timber to the Authority and accept the prices set for such timber. They had no lien over their own property and had no control over where or how their timber was sold. Emergency regulations were not sacrosanct and if they were ultra vires it was the duty of persons affected to resist them. In interpreting the regulations an individual was entitled to adopt the constructon which imposed the least restriction on the liberty of the subject and on the bounds of trade. His Honour Mr Justice Kennedy reserved his decision.