TIMBER INDUSTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 81, 27 June 1927, Page 12

TIMBER INDUSTRY

A SERIOUS POSITION CURTAILING OUTPUT (From Our Own Correspondent.J HAMILTON, Saturday. T'iRASTIC action is contemplated by sawmillers, who view the prospects of the industry with serious concern in view of the large accumulation of stocks. The annual meeting of the Main Trunk Timber Guild, attended at Hamilton by representative sawmillers from all parts of the North Island, carried a resolution that in view of the general lack of demand and heavy stocks of timber held, all sawmillers be urged to still further curtail milling operations either by shortening hands or closing down. This followed a lengthy discussion on the position, and as membership of the guild comprises over 50 mills, the foreshadowed curtailment of operations will add considerably to the ranks of the unemployed, a situation which, up to the present, the sawmillers have attempted to avoid. The chairman, Mr. J. A. Bush, made' reference to the precarious state of the sawmilling industry throughout the Dominion, and particularly the North Island. Figures obtained showed that timber stocks of all classes lying at various sawmills along the Main Trunk and Rotorua lines were in round figures 37 million feet, exclusive of large stocks held by the State sawmills at Frankton.