FIJIAN TIMBERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 10

FIJIAN TIMBERS.

PROSPECTS OF INDUSTRY.

KAURI AND RIMU PRODUCED.

That there is a future for (lie timber industry in Fiji is the opinion of Mr. W. E. Goodsir, of the Fiji Timber and Land Company, who i 3 a through passenger to Sydney by the Sonoma, which arrived at. .Auckland yesterday morning. In tho islands, lie said, there was kauri and rimu equal to the best that had been produced in New Zealand. Somo splendid specimens of kauri were to bo found in tho heart of the bush, somo of which had yielded up to 23,000 ft., Mr. Goodsir said. Tho operations of the Fiji Timber and Land Company wero commenced about six and ahalf years ago, being formed in New Zealand with Now Zealand capital. Of its two plantations, one was of 19,000 acres on tho island of Viti Levu, and consisted of fully 85 per cent, of kauri, and the other was of 83,000 acres on tho island of Vanua. Levu. In the whole of the company's area it was estimated that there were 180 varieties of millable limbers, including hardwood said to be equal to any in Australia, kauri, wit a, white pine, the Fijian riinu, or yaka, and another native tree called demanu, and having tho appearance of red mahogany.