EXAMINATION OF STATISTICS 205 



in Group I. (Hewn Timber) for about one-third of the 

 material received in 1915 {322,348 as compared with 

 928,903 loads) we paid a little over half the price paid 

 in 1913 (£2,547,777 as compared with £4,398,478). 

 In Group II. (Pitwood) the prices, as already men- 

 tioned, are eveii more startling. For an import 

 amounting to 1,300,000 loads less in 1915 (2,168,391 

 compared with 3,451,328) we paid £300,000 more 

 (£4,786,301 compared with £4,445,066). Group III. 

 again (Sawn Materials, etc.) presents the same anomalies 

 — for, with a decrease of 2,000,000 loads (4,764,584 

 compared with 6,636,607 in 1913) we paid a million 

 and a half pounds sterling more (£22,728,621 com- 

 pared with £21,034,635 in 1913). Of Groups IV. 

 (Miscellaneous) and V. (Wood Manufactures) we im- 

 ported about £2,500,000 worth less in 1915 — about 

 one and a quarter million less in each group. Group IV, 

 merits analysing. It consists of staves, mahogany, 

 other foreign hardwoods and veneers. It is difficult 

 to understarid why the step recently taken of pro- 

 hibiting the import of these foreign hardwoods, veneers, 

 etc., was not put in force at the end of the first six 

 months of the war. Even then the tonnage difficulty 

 was already being felt. Who requires mahogany and 

 veneers in war-time ? Even if a demand existed it 

 would have been better to put an end to it. In 1913, 

 141,801 loads of mahogany valued at £1,225,879 ; in 

 1914, 143,432 loads valued at £1,137.563 '> and in 1915, 

 48,284 loads valued at £385,635 were imported. For 

 the same three years hardwoods and veneers, etc., 

 were imported as follows : 249,411 loads @ £1,684,778 ; 

 226,513 @ £1,508,795 ; and 191,154 @ £1,613,042— 



