EYREWELL TIMBER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 6

EYREWELL TIMBER

Need To Keep Cost Low

The return from the windthrown timber at the Eyrewell State forest was so poor that unless costs could be kept to a minimum it would be better to heap up the timber and burn it, the Minister of labour (Mr Shand) told the Lyttelton Harbour Board in a telegram yesterday. ' The Forest Service would be, happy to export the logs to 'Japan through Lyttelton if the waterside workers at Lyttelton were prepared to work under the conditions that applied at Mount Maunganui, the Minister said. The chairman (Mr A. A. Macfarlane): And the waterside workers won’t move an inch. The works committee said that the Minister of Forests (Mr Gerard) had indicated that the timber would not be shipped through Lyttelton unless the watersiders were prepared to amend their demands on the handling of the logs. Revenue For Board

To Mr F. W. Freeman, Mr Macfarlane said it was difficult to estimate what the board would gain in revenue. There would probably be only three shipments. “By the time we made a site available and cleaned up the mess afterwards there would probably be little profit in it for the board,” he said. The board had offered to co-operate with the Government, but now it could go no further, said Mr Manning. On the works committee's recommendation, the board agreed to ask the Minister of Railways (Mr McAlpine) that rolling stock normally used at Lyttelton should not be depleted if logs were shipped through Timaru.