CONFERENCE ON HOME-GROWN TIMBER. 39 



Departments, would not only be justified but really are bound 

 to insure themselves against shortage of supplies from abroad. 

 I feel that they are in a position when they can and ought to 

 make contracts on a large scale covering a period of years 

 until things return to normal. That is an important point. 

 Of course, it is no good my saying to timber merchants or 

 anyone else that they ought to be doing more justice to the 

 timber, unless they are sure of a market at the end. I need not 

 mention the technical side, because it is so familiar. But home- 

 grown timber will never have its proper place in the market 

 until it is properly graded and seasoned and takes its place so 

 that it can actually be compared with imported. That must be 

 done, but, of course, it entails considerable expense, and it is a 

 gamble, and no one will enter into it unless he sees a market 

 for his wood. By entering it now he would run the risk of 

 being swamped by a large importation from abroad, which 

 would leave the timber merchant with his stuff as a drug on 

 the market. That has to be avoided. I think we are in a 

 position now when arrangements ought to be made with the 

 trade and users which would bridge over this difficulty and put 

 home-grown timber in its proper position. Of course there are 

 difficulties, and one sees that this cannot be done without a 

 fairly close alliance between the home-grown timber trade and 

 the importing timber merchants, because while one side handles 

 the timber, the other side has the mills and machinery which are 

 required for putting it in order for building and other purposes. 

 An alliance of that kind might be very much to the advantage 

 of both parties. I say nothing about that because it is not my 

 business. 



11 1 hope the opportunity of this Conference will be taken for 

 the various bodies represented here to tell us and tell each 

 other what the actual difficulties are to putting a scheme of that 

 kind into practice. I may say that I had a letter from Sir 

 James Ball, who was until recently Timber Controller. He 

 was very sorry to be unable to be here because he was unwell. 

 He wrote very sympathetically about the work we were doing. 

 He is a man who came into this business quite unprejudiced — 

 he came as a railway engineer. He often told me how, before 

 the war, he had made up his mind, from actual experience and 

 trials, that he could get out of our Scots pine in this country 

 sleepers quite as good as imported from the Gulf or anywhere 



