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Fritz Jenssen sworn and examined. (No. 166.) 1. Hon. the Chairman.] What is your occupation?—l have been the manager of the Hawke's Bay Timber Company, Dannevirke, but not for the last two years. I was manager of it for over twenty years. lam now a contractor working one of the company's mills. 2. Can you tell us anything about the matter we are inquiring into?—l wish to make a statement from the notes I have made: — The timber industry is one of the most important industries of the Dominion, employing, I understand, some 30,000 workers, of which about 9,500 are engaged at the sawmills. I arrived in New Zealand in 1867, and have been intimately connected with timber during the last thirty-eight years. Some of my people in the old country —Norway—were largely engaged in the timber business, milling and exporting when I left home; and on my recent visit home I found the business still flourishing and no scarcity of timber to mill, owing in a large measure to the systematic and careful way of working the bush and the regular replanting of the areas cut out. But for this replanting being carried out, both by private people and on a very large scale by the State on all waste lands there would now be very little milling-timber left in the country. Tree-planting on a very large scale is absolutely necessary in New Zealand to provide for future wants, and any one bringing this about will deserve well of the country. It will be a very valuable investment indeed, and the poor waste lands of the Dominion will become valuable in course of time, besides the sanitary and climatic benefits that would ensue. Thousands and thousands of acres of good milling-timber, worth from £5 to £15 or even more per acre for the value of the timber alone, have been disposed of by the various Governments for settlement, at fixed upset prices of £1 to £1 10s. per acre, and the settlers have been compelled under heavypenalties to fall and burn the bush within a certain time. The waste of this system has been pointed out to those in charge time after time, but it has been going on up till quite lately. The depressed state of the sawmilling industry is affecting sawmillers and workers most seriously. In the Hawke's Bay District fifteen mills are closed down, and several working shorthanded. Allowing, say, fifteen men per mill, it means 225 men idle, mostly married men. At an average wage of 10s. per day, and, say, 240 working-days, it means £15,680 per annum lost to the workers in Hawke's Bay alone. The cause of the present limited demand at the mills is not far to seek: First of all I attribute it to the scarcity of money, and secondly to the importation of Oregon pine. If it had not been for this importation we should have managed fairly well. When you have a whole loaf you can afford to give away a few slices to the tramp; but when you have only half a loaf left you can ill spare any for charity. In addition to the actual workers there are various trades seriously affected —engineers, harnessmakers, farriers, and the farmers have also to bear their share of the depression. A great number of draught horses at the millssome 150 at least —in Hawke's Bay are idle, and do not require to be stable-fed, which means lessened consumption of chaff and oats to at least £2,500 value per annum. The prices of localgrown chaff have, through the demand being reduced, gone down very much. Last year we paid £6 and even more for oaten-sheaf chaff : now it is sold freely at £2 10s. per ton. Now, as regards the importation of Oregon, it has come to pass not through there being any demand or necessity for it, but it was caused through a combination of circumstances, and it happened at a time when the building trade, which had been very brisk, suddenly collapsed. The total Oregon said to have been imported is some twenty-one millions, and it is still going on, some half-million being landed at Napier the other day. Roughly speaking, we have sent £100,000 in cash from the Dominion, and at a time when we could ill afford it. The workers have lost the benefit of this money in wages. The anomaly is shown of a tax being levied on sawmillers on all standing milling-timber. And then a line of steamers, subsidised with £10,000 per annum, these steamers bringing the Oregon timber from America at a very low rate—about 2s. 6d. per hundred feet —to compete with our local timbers, on which a tax is being paid. Of course, when the subsidy was granted the importation of this timber was not anticipated, but the result is the same. Oregon is not required at all, not even in long lengths. The quantity of long lengths used is very small. Say, for argument's sake, that it amounts to 2,000 ft. in lengths over 30 ft. in a large building, costing from £5,000 to £20,000, and say, that the increased cost on these lengths in local timbers would amount to £1 per hundred feet, which is more than ample to cover it, the extra cost on such a building would be only £20—truly an amount to make a fuss about. Reduction in railway freights is not required. The Railways must be run to pay. Not one of you gentlemen would for a moment entertain the idea of importing black labour to work the proposed State sawmills in order to lower the price of timber. I feel confident that you all feel the same as regards the importation of Oregon, which is to a great extent produced by the same black labour. With regard to the quality and durability of the Oregon, I do not think that there are a great many people about here who know anything definite; but one thing is certain, that any one who knows anything about timber at all can satisfy himself that what is imported here and is to be seen in the local timber-yards is not all heart, as has been so persistently stated. There is a large proportion of sap, and bark is not absent. I must impress upon the Commission the urgency of prompt action to prevent further importation. Prevention is better than cure. Who has benefited by this importation so far? Certainly not the community at large nor the workers. As far as I can learn it is only the importers who have benefited, and even to some of these I believe it has been a doubtful benefit. We ask an increase of the duty, to stop the importation of logs, and all. 3. Is there anything you wish to add?—lt has been said that Oregon does not take the borer, but I have a piece of timber here which has been sent to me as Oregon, and it is honeycombed with the worm. Mr. Peter Bartholomew, a well-known sawmiller, sent it to me, and he says it was taken out of a building erected of Oregon timber in the Levin district. [Exhibit put in.] Then there is an anomaly in our taxation relating to sawmills. The sawmillers are taxed in every possible way, and other people holding bush for sawmilling purposes are taxed by the Department on this timber.

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