TIMBER OPERATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1935, Page 9

TIMBER OPERATIONS

LEVY TO METAL MOKI ROAD. HIGH RATE OF ROYALTY PAID. The statement that royalties on timber cut on the Moki block worked out at the equivalent of £6 an acre was made by Mr. J. Harrison, one of the proprietors of a timber mill- about four miles up Moki Road, who waited on the Whangamomona County Council at its meeting yesterday in reference to the question of reforming and metalling the road up to the mill. This sum was considered by Mr. Harrispn as exhorbitant. The chairman, Cr. N. R. Cleland, explained that the council had conferred upon it certain powers which enabled it to make a levy on the output of the mill for the purpose of maintaining the road. Up to the present, the council had' not exercised these powers, knowing that the millers were operating in only a small way. Meanwhile, a certain small.sum had accrued to the council in “fifths” on royalties, while the Forestry Department held further moneys. In all there was about £lOO. The Conservator of Forests had repeatedly inquired as to the council’s intensions for spending the royalties, but the council was of the opinion that it would be waste of time to do the job piecemeal. Metal of sufficiently good quality had now been discovered in a reasonably convenient position, and the council desired to know to what extent Mr. Harrison’s firm would assist towards the metalling project. The council, he said, proposed to utilise its accumulation of royalties in the direction of paying haulage charges in connection with the laying of the metal and would like to see the work put in hand next summer. If metal was laid, he pointed out, the millers would be able to effect deliveries all through the year. Mr. Harrison said he fully agreed with the attitude of the council, but drew attention tp the extremely high rate of royalty demanded by the Forestry Department. He had to pay 3s 6d per 100 feet of timber extracted from the block, a royalty that •worked out equivalent to a rent of £6 an acre. The chairman: The usual royalty on your class of bush would be about Is 6d per 100. . Mr. Harrison: Yes; that is, if I got the block from the Lands Department. A similar proposition in another locality had recently been offered him at only Is 3d royalty. The chairman: Your rate of royalty is just the difference between working Crown Lands and endowment lands. I sympathise with you. Mr. Harrison mentioned that it would be necessary for him to apply for the renewal of his license within a few weeks, but in the meantime he was prepared to offer the council £5O because he realised the value of a metal road. _ In reply to the chairman, Mr. Harrison stated that his firm paid £55 each month to the Forestry Department. They had been paying that sum for two years. The chairman: Well we have not received anything like a fifth of £55 a month for two years as our share. Councillors wondered whether the department was withholding any moneys the council should be entitled to. • After further discussion, an agreement was reached in the following terms: Mr Harrison’s firm to accept a levy of 3d per 100 feet, and, when the time came for the metalling project to be proceeded with to pay levies in advance up to £ Mr. Harrison: My job is now to get my royalties reduced at least by ->d per a pity there is not a miller on every one of our roads,” remarked a councillor.