TIMBER COMMISSION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13900, 11 May 1909, Page 6

TIMBER COMMISSION.

SITTING AT AUCKLAND. Per Press Association. ; AUCKLAND, May 10. In his evidence before the Timber Commission, David Goldie, timber merchant, of Auckland, stated that he did not consider that the present price o/ timber was excessive, when the heavy expenses and risks of the millers wera taken into account. It was absurd to say that the present slump in tho building trade was due to the high price of timber. It was folly to talk of conserving the kauri, and he ridiculed the idea of placing an export duty on it. It would not save the kauri, as thousands of pounds' worth were heing destroyed every year by fire. The price obtained on exported timber enabled the millers to pay the existing high rate of wages. If an export duty was imposed. millers would either have to reduce wages or stop milling to a large extent. He did not think the import duty on foreign timber should be raised, as Oregon was now to some extent taking the place of medium kauri, which was now hard to procure. He denied that- there was a combine in the trade to keep up the price of timber. They had an Association, which agreed upon a schedule of prices, but this had not been adhered to by all the n:« nibers.