TIMBUR-PRICES. 103 
to that I measured at Waipoua, which will be better stocked and indicate 
more clearly the exact value of a fully-stocked normal area of Kauri; and 
Kauri is now so valuable, and the waste in working so greatly reduced, 
that the yield of sawn timber from selected well-stocked areas will give 
valuable data. The collection of such data from all classes of forest will 
be one of the subjects to first engage attention as soon as there is forestry 
and a Forest Department in New Zealand. (For fuller details regarding 
European forests statistics, the Statistical Appendix (Part II) as above 
should be consulted.) 
NE ZEALAND TIMBER-PRICES FROM DOUBLE TO FOUR TIMES 
EUROPEAN. 
When war broke out statistics showed that the all-round price of 
wood from German forests was 3?d. per cubic foot. (Forestry Quarterly, 
Washington, December, 1913.) In Baden, which I take as a model State 
for New Zealand to copy, the average price was 34d. (Statistical Ap- 
pendix, Part II.) A few years previously Professor Zon, in ‘‘ Forest 
Resources of the World,’’ had assumed 34$d. as an all-round value. Euro- 
pean prices are slowly rising. These are values in the log, delivered 
to the nearest roadside. 
did. per cubic foot equals 3d.-per cubic foot quarter-girth measure- 
ment. At 1c. ft. q.g. = 9 sup. ft., we have per 100 sup. ft. a price of 
33d,, or 2s. 9d. per 100 sup. ft. If to this one adds Is. 6d. per 
100 sup. ft. as the pr ice of sawing in Europe, the average price of 
sawn Kuropean timber in the forest comes to 4s. 3d. per 100 sup. ft. 
New Zealand Prices at Forest Mills.—Average prices for sawn timber 
per 100 sup. ft. at one of the sawmills about midway between Wellington 
and Auckland shortly after the outbreak of war were— 
Totara (lls. to 22s. for selected heart)—ordinary build- g 5. a. 
IRS) i-4f fk, — ae 012 0 
Rimu (9s. to 20s.)—ordinary building 0 9 O 
White- Ske Vv 0 9 0 
Black-pine (9s. 6d. to 17s. )—ordinary building (aver age) aes a 
Kauri—general average for all classes at the mills Le 0 
The practical evidence of the difference in the value Retwead timber 
ex HKuropean forest mills and timber ex New Zealand forest mills is seen 
in the fact that timber can be floated down the Rhine, be shipped with 
‘“‘ Baltic ’’ to Australasia, and there compete with home timber. 
Actually the difference is greater still, with the bad distribution of 
forest in New Zealand and the good distribution in Europe (see map, 
p. 188). Belgium has its best State forest, its second largest, abut- 
ting on the streets of its capital. New Zealand has banished its 
forests to such a distance that 2s. or 3s. per 100 sup. ft. has to be 
added to the price of all sawn timber; and firewood is nearly quite cut 
off. The firewood-coming over the railways to the large towns in New 
Zealand is less than a quarter of that used in central Europe: thus, 
New Zealand, per capita, 4; France and Germany, per capita, 18 c. ft. 
Accurate figures for the market-value royalty of New Zealand timbers 
are wanting, because practically all timber except Kauri, and sometimes 
Totara, instead of being sold at market rates, is given away at arbitrary 
rates, which are not in favour either of the country’ s finances or of the 
careful and skilful miller. As in Australia, it is one of the evils of 
non-technical forest management, and will be referred to later. 
