WILL TIMBER BE CHEAPER?

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1921, Page 6

WILL TIMBER BE CHEAPER?

A MILLER SAYS “NO.” | '‘Some people are waiting for timber . prices to drop beiore they place their . building orders,” raid & prominent tim- ; ber merchant to a Manawatu Times re- ' presentativi recently, but they are mak.ng a mistake/' He went on to point out that the yards of the North Island had been depleted of reasoned timber during the “railway cut”, and they were quite empty still. There was an enormous demand for this class of ! stuff, but it was simply unprocurable. | The present position was that many of . the sawmills along the North Island. | Main Trunk line had cut out, and that |in five years there would hardly be a I single mill within sight of the Main j Trunk line. The timber cutters were being driven further and further back, and the farther they went the more expense was entailed. Besides that the quality of the available bush was not so good as it had been, and, what with the waste entailed, in handling and transporting rough logs, and the high wages demanded by the mill hands in the back-blocks, it was impossible to lower costs and make a reasonable profit. Some of the mills had laid up la"ge

reserve supplies of seasoned timber, but it had disappeared. Another factor towards high cost was the policy being pursued by .the Chief Government Forester, Captain Ellis, who was increasing the royalties on Crown lands forests in order to discourage waste and reasonably conserve the milling areas, which were being rapidly depleted. One miller had recently been charged £l7 an acre for timber rights alone on a Government block. Some were paying more. When the items of interest and taxes on standing bush were added to the costs of tramming, wages and transport, it meant that timber would never be produced again on anything like pre-war basis. In any case, timber stocks would have to be built up before there could be a reduction. And when he said that practically every yard from the North I Cape to the Bluff was empty, and that places like Christchurch were worst off of all. people would be able to realise that those who were holding off from building would have to wait a very long while indeed.