H.—so

5

to lead to a restricted demand, the Government be urged to give favourable consideration to any application for an extension of time allowed for clearing bushes held under short Government leases." Some of our leases are running out in a year or two, and I think we should go to the Government and ask them to give us a longer time in order to get this timber off the ground. Mr. Bailey : I scarcely think that this is within our province. Mr. Goldie : It is a matter dealing with the Federal tariff. They are going to limit our supplies going over there. I think we should go to the Government and say, "We cannot sell our timber now as quickly as formerly; give us, therefore, a little time longer to remove it from the forests we have leased from you." Mr. Price : I think each party connected with this matter should approach the Government for an extended time, without coming to a Conference of this kind with it. I doubt if there are more than half a dozen affected by this motion, and I think they should take it as a private affair and approach the Government for an extension of time if it is required. Mr. Bartholomew : I think it is only fair that they should get that extension. The Chairman : I think the motion is sufficiently closely allied to the subject before the Conference. No harm can be done, and I see no harm in the Conference supporting our friends in the North in what is not only a legitimate request, but a request that has become necessary because of this tariff, and because of its probable effect. Mr. Jenssen : 1 would suggest that we should take the opportunity, now we are all here in Wellington, of holding a meeting. Some six years ago, we had a meeting—after an official meeting—at which a considerable amount of good was done. I think it would be advisable for the sawmillers here to have a meeting and discuss various matters which are certainly of the utmost interest to the sawmilling trade in both Islands. We have been cutting each other's throats for twenty years, and on the question of the white-pine we have not obtained a rate up to the limit within Is. Mr. White : Coming back to my motion, we have the Kauri Timber Company and other companies in the North which have got leases, and we are to a certain extent limited. I and others waited on one of the Ministers some time ago, and we told him the fact of rushing the timber out like that was unfair. I think the request in my resolution is one that ought to meet with favourable consideration from the Government, and I have much pleasure in moving it. Mr. Beilly : I beg to second that resolution. I have a lot of sympathy with what Mr. White has said. When you are bound to time and direction, you very often do not cut the bushes out to the best advantage. The Chairman then put Mr. White's motion, which was carried. The Conference at this stage decided to confer with the Hon. Mr. Mills. On Mr. Mills re-entering the room, The Chairman said, Mr. Mills, the sentiment of the meeting is one of cordial appreciation of the goodwill of the Government in taking the interest it has done in the matter, and giving the Conference an opportunity of coming together and laying before the Government the resolutions to which they (the Conference) have come almost unanimously. The first resolution is, " That this meeting, very largely representing the timber industry in New Zealand, would urge upon the Government the necessity, in the interests of the workers of this country, of placing an export duty on all logs, either in the round or squared with axe or saw, of such an amount as will prevent the export of such timber from our shores." You will see at once, no doubt, the object of this. It is to prevent the taking away of the timber in logs before any labour has been put upon it by our workmen in New Zealand, the object being by this export duty to restrain, if not prevent, anything of that kind. Hon. Mr. Mills : That covers all classes of timber ? The Chairman : Yes. The wealth we have in it in its naked state, just the same as if we were preventing them from shifting our land if that were possible. Then the next resolution that was carried is, " That the duty on round or squared logs be 3s. per 100 ft." There was some discussion about that, but the general opinion is that the tendency of that 3s. duty will be to restrain the attempt on the part of our friends in Australia to get the timber in its naked state as logs. The next resolution is, " That this Conference earnestly deprecates any export duty being placed on sawn or dressed New Zealand timber." I may say that that has not only been unanimously carried, but it is the result .of a very strong feeling that it would not be prudent, in the interests of sawmillers, to place a duty on the export of dressed or sawn timber. The feeling of the Conference is that there is not a sufficient margin between the cost of production and delivery in Australia to permit of an export duty without hurting very seriously the trade ; and, although the one object in stopping the trade would be to conserve the timber to a certain extent, I think it is the unanimous feeling of the Conference that that object of conservation cannot be prudently attempted, even much less accomplished, by stopping the trade. The timber is being cut practically all over the colony in districts where settlement is pressing on every side upon the bushes, and it is common experience and well established, well-sustained, and well-founded belief that unless you stop settlement in the neighbourhood of the bushes owned and being cut you cannot possibly save the timber. Fires arise, and the only result of an attempt to conserve the timber by crippling the export now would be to lose the timber altogether—neither Australia nor we would get it. You will see how difficult it is with occasional droughts to save bush which has been broken into at all, or that is in the neighbourhood of settlers, who are naturally striving to improve their places and make them more completely fit for use. Hon. Mr. Mills : I know the Government will be very pleased to get the clear expression of opinion from all here on the last resolution. It has been a matter of debate in Cabinet as to what steps (if any) should be taken in this matter without serious injury to the export trade, and at the same time in the direction of conserving the white-pine. lam well aware that as settlement