730 



Canadian Forestry Journal, September, Ipi6 



Plain Facts for Coast Lumbermen 



"The recent return of Mr. H. R. 

 MacMillan. provincial chief forester, 

 from an eighteen months' tour of 

 many countries as special lumber 

 trade commissioner for Canada, very 

 naturally whetted the curiosity of 

 our leading manufacturers, and no 

 time was lost in affording that gen- 

 tleman an opportunity to place be- 

 fore them in concrete form the valu- 

 able information he had acquired re- 

 lative to export possibilities by per- 

 sonal enquiry and investigation in 

 the world's leading lumber marts," 

 says the Western Lumberman. 

 Their eagerness to hear the report 

 was only natural, Mr. MacMillan's 

 appointment being the result of re- 

 presentations repeatedly made to 

 both the Federal and Provincial gov- 

 ernments that the British Columbia 

 export trade in lumber was steadily 

 dwindling, and that this constituted 

 a grave danger to the prosperity of 

 the industry, the prairie provinces 

 and Eastern Canada being unable at 

 the best of times to absorb one-half 

 the possible cut of the existing mills. 



"Mr. MacMillan made plain the 

 fact that it is going to be an uphill 

 fight to increase the sales of British 

 Columbia lumber in the countries 

 already visited — England, France, 

 Holland, Africa, India, Australia and 

 New Zealand, and no doubt the 

 same difficulties will be met with in 

 China and Japan, yet to be covered. 

 The adverse factors are serious in- 

 deed, but should not prove insur- 

 mountable if our lumbermen are 

 reallv in earnest in seeking: a larerer 

 share of the world trade in lumber. 

 Mr. MacMillan declared that almost 

 everywhere the prospects for busi- 

 ness were very bright, and that fol- 

 lowing the war there was bound to 

 be a tremendous demand for forest 

 products, but unless the British Col- 

 umbia manufacturers are able to sell 



their lumber on a competitive price 

 basis they need expect no consider- 

 able share of the prospective large 

 cargo trade in lumber. Referring 

 to this phase of the subject Mr, Mac- 

 Millan said : 



Must Co-operate. 



" 'To summarize the result of my 

 investigations so far as the export 

 trade for British Columbia mills is 

 concerned, I believe that unless the 

 mills here can get together and by 

 co-operation in the supplying of 

 lumber, by close study of market 

 conditions — the lumber business is a 

 speculative one to a great extent — 

 and the securing of cargo space, we 

 will not be able to compete with the 

 exporters to the south. In ever}^ 

 British territory I visited I found a 

 unanimous disposition on the part 

 of the firms handling lumber to keep 

 their business within the Empire. 

 But they expect, and rightly so, that 

 this inter-Imperial trade shall be 

 done on a business basis, that is, 

 that the British Columbia exporters 

 must give competitive prices; must 

 fill orders according to the specifica- 

 tions, and that the quality shall be 

 what is being paid for.' 



"Assuredly the lumbermen must 

 have listened to the following with 

 regret that our fair province is being 

 cheated of the credit which is its 

 due : 



" We, here in British Columbia, 

 are wont to believe that British Col- 

 umbia lumber is the standard of the 

 world, that everywhere this pro- 

 vince's name is known. It will 

 doubtless be 'a keen disappointment 

 to many to learn that so far as the 

 lumber trade, at least, is concerned, 

 by far the great portion of our ex- 

 ports — I am talking now of ante- 

 bellum export business, for there has 

 been virtually none since war broke 



