WHITE PINE TIMBER

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1917, Page 6

WHITE PINE TIMBER

THE EXPORT QUESTION; POSITION OF MILLERS. A justification for continuing the export of 'wfoite pine timber to Australia was pleaded at Auckland by Mr. Stanley Milroy, secretary of the Kauri Timber Company. Discussing the debate on the matter in tlie House of 'Representatives on Wednesday, and the contentino of Mr V. 77. p.ced that export should not be prohibited, Mr. Milroy explained the position of his own company, and said it was similar to that of other exporters. The Kauri Timber Company, 'he said, had a forest between Kaivakawa and Whangarei, containing about 23,(MX),000ft of white pine. The plant to work this cost £35.000. If white pine 'were not exported, and nothing more done beyond supplying local needs in the North— Auckland butter-box manufacturers obtained their supplies principally from the King Country—it would take 25 years to work out the forest.. This was unttmnkable from a business point of view, seeing that such a costly milling plant had been secured. When the company purchased the forest the time allowed for removing the timber was short, considering the amount of white pine growing, and involved clearing 8,000,000 ft per annum. The growing of -white pine was unremunerative to settlers, and if export were prohibited, the value of the timber would be reduced. Settlers, having no profitable market, would then (burn the timber off.

Mr. Miiroy said, further, that the outcome of the prohibition of exportation would be the adoption of a substitute for white pine for making butter boxes. The use of this substitute., if it proved satisfactory, would follow in New Zealand causing the pine forests ofjhe Dominion to became practically valueless, thus curtailing further financial loss to settlers and to exporters who had entered into large contracts in Australia. Already substitutes had been discovered, but while there was a large available supply of white pine, butter exporters, both in the Commonwealth and in New Zealand, preferred to use it for one reason alone—its cheapness.