The Examiner. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XIII, Issue 2404, 14 August 1895, Page 2

The Examiner. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

The timber industry throughout Hawke’s Bay is in a languishing condition, and is threatened with collapse unless new outlets can be found. The mills had not been paying as a rule till the Sawmillers Association was formed with a view to raising the price of timber to a paying point. Owing to the tightness of money, and the consequent want of enterprise, this has reduced the purchasing power of the people, till the demand for timber is such that it is probable some of the owners will have to shut down their mills. The result of such* a course must be very serious to the Bush Districts, $3 these mills employ a

large amount of labor. The owners are anxious to keep them open if they can find a market for their timber, and it is suggested that efforts should be made to ship Home large quantities of timber so as to keep the mills in full swing. The G overnment Timber Expert in England, Mr Freyberg, reports that there is any amount of demand at Home for our timbers. Surely, then, it is better to utilise the forest in employing labor and adding to the export wealth of the colony than to burn the timber on the ground in the reckless and wasteful manner that has been in force for so long. At a recent meeting of the Sawmillers’ Association, the Secretary, Mr T. Baker, was requested to write to Messrs Hall and Carnell, asking them to urge the Government to vote the steamer fare of a representative from the Association, who would go to England and take orders fer timber. The orders would then be divided between the different mills in proportion to the classes of timber generally cut at each mill. With the Government expert’s report as to the reliable demand that exists in England, and the excellent quality of the Hawke’s Bay timbers, it is almost a certainty that sufficient orders could be got to keep the mills in work. This means largely-in-creased employment and good wages for a large number of workers. At a time like this, when there are so many men out of work, the Government ought to hail with delight any means of increasing employment, and ought to assist it to all means in their power. Instead of this, wo find, on the other hand, that when Messrs Hall and Carnell went to the Premier on the matter he referred them to the Colonial Treasurer, as representing the Department of Trade and Commerce. The Treasurer refused to entertain the proposal, on the ground that the Government had ahead}' a Timber Expert in London. This is begging the whole question. The Timber Expert does not take a single order for New Zealand woods, and so far as bringing the English consumer, and the New Zealand sawmiller together is concerned he might as well be in Timbuctoo. The “Expert ” business has been done. What is now wanted is a practical result — the establishment of the supply between New Zealand and England. No body of men in the timber business is better able to make this a success than the Hawke’s Bay Millers Association, with their firstclass plants and splendid forests. While the Association’s project would be a benefit to the mill-owners, it would be a much greater benefit to the workers, and to the colony as a whole. Therefore the Association is reasonably entitled to the assistance they ask from the State —a small thing to the Government but a big help to the object. We hope the matter will not end with the present rebuff, but that Messrs Hall and Carnell will stick to their demand till they get it—a demand that ought to be backed up by the Members as a body. Such practical help as this would do more for the Colony than a dozen Canadian and Australian Treaties, with the heavy expenses attaching to them. We suggest, then, that another effort should he made to induce the Government to grant the small concession asked for, snd we shall help it all we can.-