TIMBER PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 10

TIMBER PRICES

GOVEENMENT ACTION

INVESTIGATION PENDING

A-special investigation is td^be made immediately, stated the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M.J. Savage)1 today, into the reason for the increases in the price of butter boxes, and timber merchants are being requested to withhold any increase in prices until such time as they can prove to the satisfaction of the Government the justification for these increases. Mr, Savage added that the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) and the Commissioner of State Forests had met the representatives of the sawmilling industry.arid explained the Government's attitude in regard to.any increase in the price of timber, both for building purposes and for the manufacture of butter boxes. As a result of that conference it had been decided that the sawmillers must forward to the Government at the earliest possible moment figures to prove, that the anticipated increase in the price of timber is justified. In the meantime all sawmillers are being advised that they must not increase their prices until such time as their statements and figures have been examined by the Government; and this, declared the Prime Minister, will be done as quickly as possible. Letters.are also being sent to all timber merchants requesting them to forward the-necessary data to the Government so that it will be in a position to decide whether or not the increases are justified.