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C. SAWMILLING Adequate statistics for the purpose of this report are not available in a verysatisfactory form. The following table gives the number of persons occupied, including employers and owners working on their own account, in the bush sawmilling industry from 1901 to 1936 : —- Table No. 89.—Table shoiving the Number of Persons (Males and Females) occupied in the Bush, Sawmilling, Forestry, and Related Industries at the various Censuses from 1901 to 1936 Year. Number. Year. Number. 1901 .. .. 8,311 1921 .. .. 9,906 1906 .. .. 8,800 1926 .. .. 10,291 1911 .. .. 9,666 1936 .. .. 10,326 1916 .. .. 8,150 Note. —Figures include those engaged on bush-felling and scrub-cutting. No figures are available over the whole period to show the number of wage-earners occupied in the sawmilling industry, but in 1926 there were 8,057 so employed ; in 1936 the figure had fallen to 6,765, plus 511 partly or wholly unemployed, making a total of 7,276. The balance is made up principally of those engaged in forestry, bushclearing, and scrub-cutting, firewood-cutting, &c. The following figures, taken from Factory Production Statistics, show the number engaged in sawmilling since 1933. The difference in the figures in this table, the details of which are taken from the Factory Production Statistics, from the census figures in the previous table is accounted for, for the most part, by the omission of afforestation, bush-clearing, and firewood-cutting from the census figures. Differences in method of collection also account for some of the variations. Table No. 90. —Table shoiving Number of Persons engaged in Sa wmilling from 1933 to 1944 Year. Number. Year. Number. 1933-34 .. .. 5,323 1939-40 .. .. 8,487 1934-35 .. .. 6,325 1940-41 .. .. 8,421 1935-36 .. .. 7,207 1941-42 .. .. 8,061 1936-37 .. .. 8,005 1942-43 .. .. 7,574 1937-38 .. .. 8,364 1943-44 .. .. 7,806 1938-39 .. .. 7,917 These figures include both bush and town sawmilling (the latter includes timberdressing employees). The increase in persons occupied in this industry until at least 1941 reflect in some measure the increased activity of the building industry, in particular housing construction. The falling off subsequent to that date is probably less than would be expected in view of the large number of operatives who were on war service. Defence construction works, however, were an essential industry and many operatives were retained, and other operatives directed into the industry. Evidence was adduced to show that, despite the return of the servicemen, the industry was not receiving its proportionate quota of workers. There would appear to be a reluctance to return to the bushfelling and sawmilling industry on the part of many ex-servicemen formerly engaged therein. Some witnesses suggested that immigrants should be brought out to provide operatives. The production of timber is vital to an expansion of the building industry, and unless this occupation can be made more attractive by the provision of adequate housing and several other amenities in the milling areas, there appears to be no solution to the problem of timber shortage. The position is the more serious in that practically all reserve stocks of timber were exhausted during the period of defence construction works, particularly during 1942 and 1943, when a large proportion of those engaged in timber-felling and sawmilling were overseas.

3—T 17.

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