TAUPO TIMBER LANDS.

Waipa Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 1009, 21 October 1920, Page 5

TAUPO TIMBER LANDS.

EVIDENCE BEFORE CO.MMISSION. SUGGESTED STATE ACQUISITION. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Thfcs Day. The Commission appointed to inquire into a proposal that the Crown should acquire the tramway and timber rights of the Taupo Totara Timber Co., is taking evidence. Cafttain Ellis, director of State Forestry, in his evidence mentioned that the timber from the Government plantations •near Rotorua would begin to be available in 1930. His department had land enough to supply timber for the next two generations. None of it would be served by the company's line. He 'thought, however, that access was required to the timber by Lake Taupo unless it was decided to conserve it. Mr Dalziel, chairman of the company, said, it was formed in 1902. They expected five hundred million feet of timber but found there was only half that quantity of which one hundred million were still uncut. If the railway was not to be made permanent the .company would sustain a loss. The*Parliamentary Committee had already decided that the line would be of value in that district.

Other evidence showed that in 1912, the estimate for bringing the line to Government standard was £40,000 but it would now be £BO,OOO. If the line was improved it should be finished to Taupo which would cause a large passenger traffic to Rotorua.