AN OREGON EMISSARY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2558, 20 July 1909, Page 3

AN OREGON EMISSARY.

“IT’S LUMBER YOU r»E BOUND TO GET.” SAYS MR. JOS. InEBAUD. Visiting Wellington, and in particular, the timber merchants of YVellington at present is Mr. Jos. Thebaud, manager of the lumber department of the Seattle firm of Hind, Rolph and Co., a business concern of the Pacific Slope, which, among other things, exports between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 feet of Oregon annually to all parts of the worlcl. Mr. Thebaud usually makes an annual visit to the East—this time, for a special reason, he has extended his itinerary to New Zealand. What that special mission is he declines to say specifically, but one may eoncludo that it concerns one thing' Oregon pi no timber. IT DOES NOT CLOSE THE MILLS. “It is a mistaken policy,” said Mr. Thebaud to a “Dominion” representative, “for any one, or any section of your people to display an antipathy against Oregon. Believe me, it is not going to take anything away from your own timbers.” Hasn’t it helped to close our mills P “No, not one of them. Your mills are closed because of a depression that has penetrated to all corners of tho world, as the result of the American panic of eighteen months ago. I hear in this country tho depression attributed to various causes. They' can be swept aside—it was the big panic in America that dealt the stunning blow. I know, because I travel all over the world. Some countries who dealt directly and largely with America felt it at once —they got it on the point. Japan, for instance! YVe are by far the largest buyers of her good silks, her tea, and other goods. She felt it good and hard a year ago. So did China. You are affected now, indirectly affected, and must swim through it to calmer water. It’s like this—the panic scared America into economy. That resulted in a lessened consumption of everything; a lessened demand meant lessened imports, and so it hit the producer where he felt it. It’s the same with you to-day,, only your market is England. Great economies and retrenchment followed the panic in England ; down went the consumption and the demand for your goods. Prices fell, and there you are! WHEN DEPRESSION LIFTS. “But to return to Oregon, and your closed mills.. Next to none is coming in now,, yet certain of your mills have closed, and some millers say that Oregon has to do with it. They know as well as I do that there is not half so much Oregon coming into New Zealand to-day as there was eighteen months, ago. YVhy? Because there is no demand to speak of for Oregon or your own timber. YVhen the depression lifts Oregon will begin to float in again, and all your mills will be going full time. Another phase of the matter is that you cannot expect the world to take your surplus products without a fair interchange of trade.” But America is liiginv protected! “That is so, and it’s no good to us. There is a great revulsion of feeling among many people in America. Tho mere fact that the party, in the recent election, oiiought it wise .to put a plank in their -platform providing for a special session of Congress to consider tariff reform shows the feeling that exists. That session has now been sitting for some months talking nothing but tariff. INEVITABLENESS OF OREGON. “In a progressive country like this you will have to reach out for markets, and the Pacific Slope offers a big field in which to exploit your products and resources: Y’ou have a tariff on Ore- v gon just now, and -it is noi&ed about that an additional duty is to be imposed on short lengths. It is ever so ridiculous—you can’t keep Oregon out. It goes everywhere, because it’s wanted. It has special qualities which keep it’in demand, as your own timbers have. We export any amount of timber to Western Australia, where our agents are the Miller Karri and Jarrah Timber Co. They have timber in Japan, but the import of Oregon increases every year; so does the import of Siberian pine, for that matter.' All timbers have their uses, and Oregon is specially gifted. You may put extra duty on it. That will not matter. Your Government may get a little more revenue but you and yours will nay for it. I say you must have Oregon, because your architects and builders know what they can do with it. I say you have to conserve your own good timbers. The life of your kauri forests has already been .computed, your totara is all but done, and good heart of red pine' is not so plentiful as it was. Oregon will help you to nui’sa your forests. It goes to all parts of the world—New Zealand must take her share. “The Oregon coming just now is a mere spattering. It was .brought from the Sound via San Francisco, but most of it was for Sydney, and Melbourne, where very large stocks are held.” On the subject of labor, Mr. Thebaud says that all the labor employed in American mills is white, and highly paid. -For tho, colored element, you must visit the mills of British Columbia, and other parts of Canada, where the Sikli, tho Hindu, the Japanese, and the SwedO peg in together.