EXPORT GRADING

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1935, Page 16

EXPORT GRADING

AUSTRALIAN TIMBER MARKETDELEGATION FROM DOMINION. Among the passengers who sailed for Australia by the Monowai on Friday were three Southland sawmillers who intend to visit several Commonwealth centres to further the export of New Zealand timber to Australia. The delegation, which is composed of Messrs. O. Randle,. J. Kilkelly and T. Harrington, will discuss the question of establishing a uniform grading system for New Zealand silver beech sent across the Tasman. / J One of the primary aims of the members of the delegation is to secure approval by users of New Zealand silver beech in Australia of a form' of grading and classification that will give' them clear definitions and specifications of each of the grades exported. It is considered that such an understanding will act as a protection to both exporters and consumers, as it will give file purchasers definite knowledge which will enable them to purchase according to requirements. GRADING HARDWOODS. “The matter of grading hardwoods, to which classification silver beech belongs, is a rather complicated one,” the secretary of the Dominion Sawmillers* Federation (Mr. A. Seed) said when interviewed. “It is somewhat different from the process of grading and classification adopted for building timbers, for the latter are classified according to strength and other factors peculiar to construction, whereas hardwoods, being used mainly for manufacturing purposes, require to be graded and classified on the basis of the volume of ‘clear cutting’ that each board, will provide.” Mr. Seed explained that a beam twenty, feet long with a knot ’in the centre would be useless for spanning a ceiling in a building because it would be liable to break at the knot, but for,' manufacturing purposes the knot could be cut out and the rest of the beam used for broom or brush handles, boot lasts or similar articles.

“After many years of the process of trial and error,” Mr. Seed continued, “the hardwood lumber industry of North America has devised and adopted a set of grading rules that can be made applicable to almost all known hardwoods, and already these rules have been recognised and. accepted in the timber markets of the United Kingdom as a definite standard applying to upwards of 80 per cent, of the hardwoods imported into England. ' FORESTRY INVESTIGATION. “Investigations by forestry experts are at present being carried out in the hardwood districts of Australia with the object of adapting the same grading rules to the trade in Australian timbers; and the object of the present delegation representing New Zealand silver beech millers is to seek to establish the same form of grading rules for our silver beech exported to the Commonwealth. The ultimate aim is to secure uniformity of grading and classification for all Empire hardwoods.” It would be remembered, Mr. Seed added, that a delegation visited Great Britain in 1932 to establish silver beech on the British market. That delegation had met with a fair measure of success which had been reflected in New Zealand’s timber exports. The trade established there was largely due to the adoption of the grading rules he had referred to.