GENERAL DEPRESSION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19914, 9 August 1927, Page 6

GENERAL DEPRESSION

THE TIMBER TRADE “A DEPLORABLE CONDITION” “There is a general depression in the timber industry of New Zealand,” said a man interested in lumber yesterday when speaking to a “Chronicle” man, “and conditions in the sawmilling centres along the Main Trunk have reached a serious state. The trouble, which became manifest many months ago when heavy importations of American lumber and a general lessening in building enterprise combined to slacken demands, is at an acute stage. “As an example,” he continued, “in one sawmilling centre which has normally a population barely exceeding 1000 persons, there are at the present moment over 100 men out of work. The conditions to which these people have been reduced is such as to occasion pity and alarm. Finding themselves out of work almost all of them turned to cutting firewood. This, besides affecting a final clearance of the fire swept acres, was hoped to /ield a direct monetary reward. But hopes in this respect were not realised. It was found to be extremely slow and arduous work, for after cutting the firewood, the country was of such a nature that the only form of transportation possible was manpower. Each log had to be carried by hand to the nearest tramway or roadway. In consequence of the slow progress made in reaching an outlet the earnings were necessarily small for the hours engaged in the work. “Then another difficulty loomed up. It was found that the railage rates precluded the possibility of reaching the markets it had been hoped to supply. And so, in tho end, the work was scarcely profitable. The trade in firewood was confined to a market within a very limitable area. One man’s earnings are stated not to have averaged more than three pence per day! Another man, who borrowed an axe and a saw which he had the misfortune to break, found, after three weeks’ strenuous labour, that he was 25s out of pocket when ho replaced tho borrowed tools with ncSv ones.’* It affected married and single men alike, he said, and the utmost hardship and privation prevailed in every direction. All manner of avenues were being turned to in the hope of finding relief. One young man had raided the slaughter houses of the neighbourhood and, gathering up the discarded horns of slaughtered beasts, was polishing and mounting them as hat racks. One gratifying feature was that there was no house rent to pay, as cottage and hutments formerly used in connection with discarded or closed mills, are again brought into use, and firewood, a necessary consideration at this season on the higher levels, could be had in plenty. “Every quest for work is fully exploited,” said the timber man. “For example, one man who fell in the line of my inquiries, said he had heard of a vacancy in a mill nine miles away. He reached the mill at 6 o ’clock next morning only to find more than 100 applicants assembled at that hour for the one vacancy. Very few mills in tho King Country are working full time. The majority that arc operating confine the week’s work to two or three days, but most of the mills are closed down with a very indefinite prospect of re-open-ing. Naturally, trade throughout the districts affected is practically at a standstill, and for all interests in this stricken area the prospect is uncertain. The immediate position is deplorable and is inflicting great hardship on a vast number of men and their dependents. ’ ’