Log Timber from Canada To Auckland

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 73, 27 March 1936, Page 3

Log Timber from Canada To Auckland

FIRST LARGE SHIPMENT. INNOVATION IN TRADE. The first large shipment of Canadian timber in logs to be brought to New Zealand will arrive at Auckland by the steamer City of Vancouver, which is scheduled to reach port from Vancouver this week with a cargo of Oregon pine logs for Auckland and Australia. About 1500 logs, containing about 1,500,000 ft. of timber, will be unloaded at Auckland for the Kauri Timber Company. Nearly every cargo steamer that comes to Now Zealand from Pacific Coast ports brings timber as well as general cargo, but the timber has all been sawn into different thicknesses before it is shipped from Canada. A small trial shipment of Oregon timber in logs was brought to Auckland about 12 months ago for the Kauri Timber Company and was cut up at the company’s mill in one day. The success of the experiment resulted in the timber now on the City of Vancouver being ordered. The shipping of timber in logs from Canada to Auckland is more economical than when it is brought here sawn into thick planks or baulks. The duty is much less and the freight on log timber in such a large quantity on a special chartered steamer is much cheaper than when it is brought from Canada by the regular cargo steamers. Another point is that logs will be sawn in Auckland by local labour, instead of the money for the work being spent in Canada. If this shipment proves profitable it is probable that further cargoes of logs from Canada will be brought to Auckland. Although it is an innovation to bring logs of Canadian timber to New Zealand it is not a novelty in Australia, where large quantities of Canadian log timber are imported and afterwards cut up by Australian sawmills. The City of Vancouver is a steamer of 5679 tons and is owned by the Vancouver Steamship Company, Limited. This is not the company that owns the City steamers that usually bring general cargo from New York to New Zealand. They aro owned by the Ellerman-Hall Lines.