TIMBER TRADE

Marlborough Express, Volume LX, Issue 230, 29 September 1926, Page 4

TIMBER TRADE

DECRBASED IMPORTS. Tiie drop in timber imports predicted by the Forestdy j^epartnient some little timo ago is now appaient m tbe figures for the seven months enchng July 3ILst, wfiich have just been released. For the corresponding peiioa of 1925, 42,110,000 feet of timber was imported, while for the past seven. months onlv 38,149,000 feet came into th© conutrv, a cleurease of approximately *4,000,000 feet, Tradeyiii Austraiian hardwoods remains quiet ancl only 11,065,000 feet has been infjiorted this year, wlnch is practieally naif of tlie quantity which came into tfie Dominion up to tlie end of August, 1925. Importations of sleepers liave been especially small and less than l,000,00o feet has been sliipped to New Zealand, compared with 5,680,000 feet for the- sam© period last year. Before tbe end of the current year it is anticipated that buying will be. more active. Increases of shipments of American softwoods are still to be seen, liowever. With last year's figures in parentheses, the following have been tlie importations: — Cedar 5,975,000 feet 12.910.000' feet). Douslas fir

10,283,0U0 beet (9.300,000 feet), heniloek and spruce 4,00o,uoo f'eet (1,049,000 feet). This represnts a total increase of 7,000,000 feet ovcr last year's figures. Cedar has inereased by 100 per cent. and hemlock and spruce by nearly 300 per cent. 011 last year's importations. The importation oi Douglas fir during the month of July was particularly heavy, amounting to 2,600,000' feet and more. This was due to tlie fact ' that consumers were choosing to pay tlie slightly higher price and obtain Douglas fir instead of hemlock. Tfie average Customs values, which equal the domestic value in the country of export. plus 10 per cent., have fiuctuated considerably during the year. Rough sawn Douglas fir, the principal timber imported, varied most, and from 11s 5d in January fell to 10s 2d in March, suddenly rose to 13s Id in April, and 15s in May, only to f'all to 1.1s lOd in 'June and rise to 12s lOd in July. Dressed hemlock ha® ranged from 18s to 25s 9d, which was its Customs value in June. In July it fell suddenly to 21s 3cl. Cedar, however, has remained very steadv with only a. variation of 22® 4d over the whole seven months of the year. The flnctuations of Douglasi fir and hemlock have been due to a certain extent to small changes in tlie market on tlie Pacifio Coast of Ameriea, but mainly to the differeiit grades and sizes of these timber® imported. Cedar, whicn is imported in uniform grade, has remained fairly firm in consequence . The export of timber from New Zealand during tlie period under review' was 23,219,000 feet, comparecl with 25,573,000 feet in 1926, a decrease of 2,00.000 feet. Rimu is slightly higher, beechwood, kauri, and white pine all having f allen as in previoiis years. Some v5 per cent. of the export consists of white pine.