IMPORTED TIMBER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2359, 27 November 1908, Page 7

IMPORTED TIMBER.

KING COUNTRY SAWMILLS. * A SERIOUS POSITION. A well-iattended meeting of the sawmill employees was hold in the Town Hall, ‘ Taumarunui, on Saturday night, every mill in the district 'being represented. Tlie position of the workers: has reached an acute stage, owing to the large, importations of _ Oregon pine, especially at a time when money is very tight, and trade dull. The demand for local timber is fast disappearing, and the mills are .reducing their output, working part time only. The men will thus ioso from two to three days a week. A deputation was appointed to proceed to Wellington and place the position beforo the Prime Minister. , There taro over 500 persons employed in the immediate vicinity of Manunui and Taumaranui, receiviiqg in wages about £5,000 per month. If tho mills -aro closed down, the effect will be far-reaching 'and disastrous to tho district, and especially to the workers, a large number of whom are married men. Independent of the amount .stated, which is paid in wages to sawmill employees, over £IOO,OOO has boon spent by tho local mills on tramways within the last year or two. It w r as pointed out by some of the speakers that according .to the Government returns sawmilling was the largest industry in the Dominion, inear.ly 0000 persons being employed and receiving £504,000 in wages, while it pays more in wages per pound of capital invested than .any other industry in the Dominion.