A NEW TIMBER ENTER- PRISE.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 July 1920, Page 2

A NEW TIMBER ENTERPRISE.

The question of timber supplies is one of pressing public importance, and therefore, considerable interest will he awakened by the Abridged Prospectus of The Great Western Timber Company, Ltd., which is published in this issue. The new company is being formed with a capital of £125,000, divided into 125,000 shares of £T each, to open up and work a large area of forest in the vicinity of the port of Qkaritq, South Westland. The prospectus states that there are 10,000 acres over which the Vendors have the milling rights; 4000 acres on the, shores of the Okarito Lagoon; 2000 acres just on the South side of the little township, while 4000 acres are further North near the Wanganui River (south of Hokitika). With regard to the 6000 acres adjacent to Okarito, Mr Gideon Anderson, Crown Lands Ranger, now Forestry Inspector, estimates that there is 80 per eent. rimu, 17 per cent, white pine, the balance being silver pine, totara and maitai. He further estimates that this area will average 30,000 feet to the acre. The Ranger has given permission to state that he considers there is no bush in Westland that will compare with this, both as to the length of the hole and the number of/ trees to the acre. The average length of the bole of the trees in the forest inspected was estimated to be not less than 80 feet, while some of them were 120 feet.

Mr J. Blair Mason, M. Inst- 0.E., M. Inst. Mech. E., M.N.Z., Spc. C.E.\ the'well-known Marine Enginper, vjsitr ed Okarito, and his reports therequ are an interesting account pf the possibilities of working the port. His concilia sion is that with boats to suit the port in its present state getting the tinker out >s certain.

The timber content of the forest areas over which the Vendors hold milling rights is estimated at three hundred million feet. Computed at £1 per hundred this means that the Company will start out with an asset that should bp worth £3,GQO,OfX). Full particulars of the new enterprise are given in an illustrated booklet entitled “New Zealand Monarchs of the Forest,’’ which can be obtained from any branch of the Bank of New Zealand. For the convenience of intending investors, an application form is being published in this issue, at the foot pf the Abridged Prospectus.