OUR IMPORTS 167 



The chief supplies of fir (coniferous wood — hewn, 

 sawn, and planed — other than pitwood) come from 

 Russia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, United States, 

 and Canada, the total values of the imports from these 

 countries for 1913 being £16,000,000 from Europe 

 and £6,500,000 from the United States and Canada. 

 The Russian imports were £10,330,000, as against a 

 total of £5,700,000 from Sweden, Norway, and Ger- 

 many, the totals from the United States and Canada 

 being £3,383,000 and £3,150,000 respectively. 



Russia again is the chief pit prop and pitwood 

 supplier, £2,400,000 worth of this essential com- 

 modity for the mines of the country being imported 

 in 1913 (as against £1,400,000 in 1909, an increase of 

 a million !). The next important supplies came from 

 France, £830,000 ; Sweden, £560,000 ; Portugal, 

 £280,000 ; and Norway, £200,000 ; Germany, Spain, 

 and other foreign countries sending together £154,000. 

 No pitwood came from British possessions during 

 1913. The importance of the position revealed by 

 these figures can scarcely be exaggerated. 



Wood pulp, of which a shortage has probably already 

 made itself felt, to judge from the dwindling in size 

 as also in quality of the paper in use by many of the 

 daily papers and the weekly and monthly periodicals, 

 is shown in the Board of Trade 1913 Returns under 

 five heads : Chemical dry, bleached and unbleached ; 

 chemical wet ; mechanical dry and wet. Of the first 

 named, Norway is the largest importer into this 

 country (£136,000 in 1913), with £23,000 from Sweden. 

 The largest amounts of unbleached came from Sweden 

 (£1,945,000), Norway (£377,ooo), Russia (£329,000), 

 13 



