THE TARANAKI TIMBER TRADE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7169, 13 September 1886, Page 2

THE TARANAKI TIMBER TRADE.

Some interesting particulars have baen bronght out by the Taranaki and Man-\-watu sawmillers in their correspondence with the Minister o? Public Works, in reference to n reduction in the Railway charges on white pine timber. It appears that with the exception of the Wairarapa, no other district which uses the railway, has white pine to ship, the principal or only source of supply beinjr Thames, Pelorus, and Waitapu, (Nelson). This statement was made in answer to an objection that if the railway charges on white pine on this coast were reduced a falling off would be caused in the returns from other railways on which white pine is carried. The larger timber traders in Otago and Canterbury procure their white pine from the North Island. Owing to the hampering charges on white pine, the Invercargill sawmillers can deliver rimu in Lyttelat a lower figure than our white pine <ym be Bent. White pinp, however, com r maflds a Wetter price than rimu in the South, while in the North it is little used, and mast go to waste unless facilities are given for its export. Under the present tariff only those orders which contain a good proportion of dreßsed stuff can be supplied profitably, but with a reduction the Taranaki and Manawatu millers could also fulfil orders wholly of rough or sawn, and so be able to supply timber- merchants who do their own dressing, 1 and would also be able to supply case timber used in the Australian Colonies for packing. We also gather that the Taranaki sawmillers have been making enquiries as to how the charges made by vessels calling at the port of New Ply; mouth would compare with those levied at other New Zealand ports, and it has been elicited that ships would carry timber from here to Brisbane at 4b., which is about the cheapest offer from a New Zealand port "which has yet been'made'.