THE TIMBER TRADE WITH NEW SOUTH WALES.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 43, 15 November 1882, Page 2

THE TIMBER TRADE WITH NEW SOUTH WALES.

The sawmillws of the Manawatu have succeeded in establishing a market for their timber in Now South Wales by persistent and well-directed efforts, and their success is still farther to be assisted ' by the New South Wales Government. It lias been determined by the Legislature of that colony to remove the duty on all imported timber. The benefits of this Act that will be derived by this colony generally, and the Manchester Block in particulars almost incalculable. As the amount of duty hitherto charged in Sydney was 1/6 for rough and 2/- for dressed timber per 100ft., this reduction alone will leave a fair margin of profit. Not only will white pine continue to be exported, but the more valuable totara will now be sent to take a place in the market. The timber trade here is at present prosperous, and has quite reoovered from the shock it received a few years back, when our own Government took off the import duty of 2/- per 100ft., with the -result that the market in the colony for New Zealand timber was paralysed by the introduction of American timber. A few years of hard work have removed the traces of this act of folly, and we are now enjyoiug comparative prosperity. It is at such times that good fortune is generally showered upon us. That New Zealand timber can compete with any other in the world we have not the slightest doubt, and though for a : time the small (comparatively speaking) cargoes we will be able to forward will ' be overshadowed by the Americans, yet ; the remarkable beauty of our white pine, , iind the lasting qualities of totara, will have the effect of kreping the prices at ' the head of the poll. «