MAIN TRUNK TIMBER MILLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 307, 28 December 1922, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK TIMBER MILLS.

PRICES READJUSTED. Sawmillers down the Main Trunk railway line have been readjusting the prices for rimu and matai, in order to encourage the use of the lower grades instead of heart, and also of narrower boards, especially in flooring. The secretary of the Main Trunk Timber Trade Protection Guild (Mr. Arthur Seed), in explaining the reductions, said in ordinary building matai they were from 5/6 per hundred superficial feet in 3in x lin flooring to 1/6 in scantling sizes. In heart of matai there had been a reduction of 4/0 per 100 ft in 3in x lin flooring, and 3/ in rough heart flooring and weather boards. Second-class scantling in rimu had been reduced 6/ per 100 ft, and rough heart boards by 1/ per hundred. Increases in both rimu and matai were 1/ per 100 ft on wide boards in ordinary building timber, to 3/ in clean quality. In the heart lines .the increase had been from 1/ per 100 ft on wide framing quality boards to 3/6 in wide sizes in clean heart. "The whole readjustment has been made with a due consideration of the proportion or percentage of each quality produced from the log," Mr. Seed explained. "Though the increases in some lines appear to be rather much, the quantity of these qualities produced from the log is so small that the ultimate effect of the readjustment to building will practically leave the timber costs as they were before."