210 TIMBER IMPORTS AND EXPORTS IN 1915 



a rise in price of I'o-'j to ^8 '4 per load. With the 

 essentials for war operations becoming more and more 

 difficult to supply we still continued to import ma- 

 hogany, veneers and other unnecessary materials of 

 this nature ! It would be ludicrous were it not so 

 disastrous. 



Lastly in Group VI. (Wood Pulp) the imports in 191 5 

 were a little less than in 1913 (2,167,032 as compared 

 with 2,296,835 loads), whilst the price rose slightly 

 (£5.979.486 compared with £5,283,716). 



The table on pp. 206-9 shows the amounts of forestry 

 materials imported and their values month by month 

 for the years under review. 



Under Group I. it is observable that the amounts 

 imported month by month during 1915 were only 

 about one-third to a half of those imported in 1913. 

 As regards prices the rise^'between January 1915 and 

 December 1915 was £fi per load (12,956 loads @ 

 £101,739 to 20,709 loads @ £185,609). In Group II. 

 (Pitwood) the increase between January and Decem- 

 ber 1915 was greater. In January 117,755 loads cost 

 £188,046, whereas in December 140,192 loads cost us 

 £461,632, an increase of from £16 to £3 "2 per load. 

 In Group III. (Sawn and Planed) there was also a rise, 

 the price going from £3-5 per load in January to £5 in 

 December (167,625 loads @ £669,466 to 265,287 @ 

 £1,340,931 in December). In Group IV. (Miscellaneous) 

 staves fell from £9*4 per load in January to £5-9 in 

 December ; whilst mahogany, other foreign hard- 

 woods, and veneers rose from £6 "3 per ton to £8 "6 

 per ton (11,280 tons @ £71,963 to 16,221 tons @ 

 £140,085 in December). The itaiports of wood manu- 



