KAURI TIMBER TRADE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8472, 25 June 1907, Page 5

KAURI TIMBER TRADE.

"As to the anomalies in the kauri timber trade which I have referred to on a previous visit to Christchurch," Mr Millar said to a Christchurch Truth reporter, on Saturday, "I am receiving communications froni different parts of the colony conveying a considerable amount of information. The latest price list sent to me from x the Kauri Timber Company and the Auckland wholesale firms who control the jcauri forests is 17s 6d per 100 ft. The v same class of timber is sold in Melbourne at 22s and in Christchurch at 275. It seems strange that the timber can be sold in Melbourne for 22s per 100 ft after paying 2s export duty and freight. The freight being the same to the South Island of this colony, it really means that if there were no export duty this Kauri could jbe sold at 2Cs per IOUf t in Melbourne as against 27s in Christchurch. The statement that only first-:lass timber is being sold here has been disproved. Tnere is mcra first-class timber exported to Melbourne than is kept in New Zealand. The samp thing applies to other local timber—rimu, etc — owing to a ring of sawmillers the prices have been raised far beyond the bounds of a legitimate profit. I intend to make full enquiries into the'whole question, and to submit the result of those investigations to my colleagues, as it seems unreasonableto allow any set of men to unduly exploit the public."