TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20246, 15 July 1937, Page 16

TIMBER INDUSTRY.

VALUE TO DOMINION. PRODUCTION STATISTICS. (Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. “The timber and wood-working industries in New Zealand represent an investment of approximately £4,000,000,” says the president of the Federated Sawpilllers’ Association, Mr J. Bush, in a statement issued to the Dominion. “At the end of March, 1936, the latest date for which complete figures are available, the total number of mills and box factories was 415, of which 364 wdre log sawmills and'27 cooperages and box factories. The number of employees at that date was 7638, and the value of the annual production £4,154,000. “The reported production of all species of sawn timber for the same year was 293,075,313 ft. b.m.. of which approximately 54 per cent consists of rimu, 18 per cent white pine, 16 per oent of other Indigenous species, and 12 per cent of exotics, principally pinus inslgnis. “The principal producing areas for the year 1936 in provincial districts were as follows (Auckland still maintaining its long-established lead) : Feet. Per oent. Auckland .. 118,537,000 40 Westland .. 73,921,000 25 Southland .. 28,173,000 10 Wellington .. 22,937,000 8 Nelson . . 17,322,000 6 Other districts 32,185,000 11 “The wages paid in 1936 totalled £1,390,000, and with the increase in wages which took place last year it is estimated that the wages hill for tho timber industry must now exceed £2,000,000 a year. It contributed to the revenue of the railways last Eear by way of freight, approximater £487,000, and to State departments by way of royalties more than £IOO, 000, and in sales tax approximately A 150.000.”