Timber Supplies.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3783, 16 May 1908, Page 2

Timber Supplies.

By Telegraph.—Press Association Wellington, Last Night.

“The merchants are not pitting Oregon pine against the New Zealand pine,” said Mr N. F. Massey, secretary of the Timber Merchants’ Association, when interviewed on the prices ruling on the timber market. He went on to say that the difficulty had been to obtain a sufficient supply, and cited last year as an instance. The whole of the mills in this island which supplied the Wellington market only supplied, a fraction oyer half of the total timber imported in Wellington for the year. It was very small, but the quantity was diminishing fast, and they had to look somewhere for their timber. Mr Massey said that the timber along the Main Trunk line would be practically all absorbed by the towns on the line, and those inland from it. He understood that there was nothing like the quantity of the timber along that route that has been stated. At the conference at New Plymouth, in March last, a West Coast miller, an expert on the subject, reported that he had spent a week in that district, and he said that he felt he was £IOOO richer after seeing that bush, as he had been frightened at the quantity which was said to exist. No doubt there was a large quantity of timber in that part of the country, but certainly not as much as had been represented. “We cannot get the supplies we want in the North Island,” said Mr Massey. “So we must fall back on sea borne timber.” He did not think that the duty should be taken off Oregon pine, although they as timber merchants would like to see it off v He did not see how the Government could take the duty off, knowing the prices at which this timber could be bought. Some sawmillers would of course, like to see the duty increased.”