THE TIMBER INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 6

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY

■ AND THE RAILWAY CUT. Mr. John Prouse,- who has visited most of tho big timber pills up the line within the last ten days, informed a Dominion reporter yesterday that the railway embargo on the carriage of'timber would have a serious effect on the trade if continued over any length of time. Most of the big mills' would manage to keep going for 'a month. Then they would close down altogether until such time as the embargo was lifted. There were two firms, in town who-held fair stocks of timber, but the rest were at a low elib for stocks, and would feel the pinch almost immediately. A month at tiie outside would see all stocks exhausted in the city-then (ha building trades must stop if supplies wore not forthcoming from some other quarter^ Ono contractor in a big way said that they were seriously embarrassed already through not being able to secure supplies of fresh-water gravel. Nearly the whole of the, shingle used in concrete work in Wellington came from tho bed of tho Hutt River, but that supply was practically cut off, as the railway would not carry gravel. He had, this week, wanted only one load of shingle to complete a'job, and had some difficulty in securing it.