6o TIMBER SUPPLIES DURING THE WAR 



hands several times, with a resulting addition to the 

 price all the time, and the result had been that in 

 converting that timber, having regard to the price 

 which was paid for it, the costs had been on the 

 high side, and in order to prevent the inflation of 

 prices, after a great deal of examination and trepida- 

 tion, he (the Controller) came to the conclusion, 

 after the fullest discussion with their advisory 

 committees on both sides — the Landowners' Forestry 

 Advisory Committee and the Home-Grown Timber 

 Trade Advisory Committee — ^he came to the con- 

 clusion it was desirable in the joint interests to 

 endeavour to fix maximum prices. He was boimd 

 to tell them that he had hesitated a long time before 

 trying to do it, because he had to consider a good 

 many sides of the question, not the least amongst 

 which was production. The Landowners' Forestry 

 Committee gave a good deal of thought to it ; the 

 prices were discussed from, he thought, all points 

 of the compass. Some of them were of opinion 

 that the prices suggested were too low, others 

 thought that from the broad national standpoint 

 they had better be accepted. When he came to 

 the traders — the home-grown timber merchants — 

 they had another side of the story, and they thought 

 that the prices suggested were too high. So, alto- 

 gether, it had been an exceedingly difficult task 

 to endeavour to bring it to any right sort of con- 

 clusion, even after Ustening carefully to the advice 

 tendered to him by his Forestry Advisory Com- 

 mittees — and he would Uke to say that they had 

 been of wonderful assistance and benefit to him. 

 .He did not claim to be a forestry expert, as they 

 knew ; he was merely an ordinary railway engineer 

 with commercial knowledge and intelligence, but 

 the assistance which he had derived from the Land- 



