THE PRICE OF TIMBER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10062, 2 February 1909, Page 4

THE PRICE OF TIMBER.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, February 1. Timber prices are down for the first time for many months. The builder is able to secure supplies at something less than ''boom" prices, and perhaps the change for the better from the builder's point of view only' may have a bracing effect upon the languishing building trade. It is impossible fo exactly indicate the "extent of the reductions, liceause the Timber Merchants' Association'has not issued a new list. Inquiries among merchants and a few builders.indicate that the reductions will average abdut Is 6d per hundred feet on general building lines, and .possibly more on special "items compared with the price list of three months ago. "Yes, this is a good time to build," remarked one of the biggest merchants. "Atthe beginning of last- year trade was verygood, and the difficulty w-as that we'could not supply orders. About six months afterwards the demand lessened, and ndw it is very slack, because there is very little doing, especially with small houses. Millers are cutting the price to keep their, mills going, and merchants are doing the same." Is not- the millers' difficulty mainly caused by over-production? "It is over-production now," replied the merchant: "but it was not over-production some time ago, when they could not cut enough to fill orders. The whole "difficulty, whichever way you look at it, is caused by the scarcity of money." Prices, it appears from inquiries among the merchants, have' gone down generally, but they- vary, as some firms seem more anxious to do business than others, and they are willing to "quote low prices to good customers who' will meet their accounts promptly. This is a time for'caution among the" timber merchants as well as other people, and just' now they take no risks.