QUIET CONDITIONS IN TIMBER TRADE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19238, 27 November 1930, Page 7

QUIET CONDITIONS IN TIMBER TRADE.

FEW BUILDING PERMITS ISSUED IN AUCKLAND. (Special to the “ Star.”) AUCKLAND, November 27. The quiet conditions in the timber industry were referred to by Sir George Elliot, chairman of directors of the Leyland, O’Brien Timber Company, Limited, at the annual-meeting yesterday. In moving the adoption of the report, which recommended the payment of a dividend for the year at the usual rate of Is 8d a share, Sir George Elliot said that under the adverse circumstances prevailing, the company had made a particularly good showing. In all its thirty-two years of existence, there had never been so little timber sold in any one year. The price had been a little higher last year, but for twenty years, the yield from sales had never been so low. Last month only twenty-eight permits were issued for the construction of houses in Auckland, and the fact that this business was distributed among twenty-five timber merchants illustrated the decline in trade that was being experienced. The company had a good dividend paying record, having made a continuous distribution for thirty-three years. In good times many shareholders had considered that the directors had been ultra-conservative in not paying more. The directors had not realised that such conditions as were affecting the industry at present would happen, but the fact that they had been ultra-con-servative enabled them to pay a dividend that they would have been unable to pay otherwise. The report and balance-sheet were adopted.