Salvage of windthrown timber

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 14

Salvage of windthrown timber

Sir, —A man at the same counter as I in a shop on Saturday asked for some fence palings and was told, “sorry, we have had none for two years.” Is this true or false? There are many jobs I do around our home, but because of the shortage and the high price of outdoor timber jobs, 1 have now decided to use concrete blocks, buying a few each month until I have the required amount, unless the windblown timber can be put out to the customer at a cheaper price than it is priced at the moment. —Yours, etc., I.E.D. August .11, 1975.

[Mr R. W. Fehsenfeld.j president of the Canterbury) Timber Merchants’ Associa-' tion, replies: “Your corres-j pondent says he was ‘in a! shop . . .’ It may be the shop) had not ordered palings from] the producers. On the other) hand, if ‘I.E.D.’ was at a tim-i ber merchant’s yard, the) idaim is a little hard to under-!

stand. Admittedly, palings were hard to get at the height of the housing boom as millers and merchants were having difficulty in meeting the demand for building timbers for housing. This situation has now changed and there should be reasonable supplies of palings available from s city timber merchants, but bearing in mind the demand generated by the storm of the century. Timber is subject to rigid price control. If ‘I.E.D.’ contacts merchants listed in the yellow pages, I hope he will be able to satisfy his timber requirements.”]