The Sawmillers and Railway Freights.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1713, 20 May 1886, Page 4

The Sawmillers and Railway Freights.

[Waipawa Mail ] The sawiuiilers m the bush have a grievance. Some time ago, the attention of Government was drawn to the fact that a very large export trade might be developed with white-pine timber, if the railway freights were reduced to a reason-, able standard. The matter was con■tdered, and a reduction m the freights was granted. The result has, of coarse, been a tremendous stimulus to the trade, •nd the Government, as well as the sawmillers, and the whole of the tax pavers are the gainers. Well, the sawraillers now find that they can send away immense quantities of other kinds of timber as well as white pine, and they want GoTernment to make similar reductions now to those which they made before. We hope these reductions will be granted. Already two of the sawmil'ers are send ing shipments of timber away to Christchurch, and the ship owners are carrying it all the way for Is 6d a hundred feet. The railway freight is fully a shilling a hundred more than this, so it will readily be seen that the whole of the trade ie meeting with serious opposition at the hands of the Government. Now we would point out that the timber industry is a mnst important one, and one which we cannot afford to lose. Surely the Government will lend a listening ear and grant a reduction m freights. Surely they will do so when they remember that the traffic m timber for export will very rapidly increase if the cost of carriage is reduced. In fact, it will be to the. advantage of everyone concerned, if the railways will carry all kinds of timber, for export, at a uniform rate.