Kiln-drying timber plant is to be installed at the Otahuhu (North Island) and Addington (South Island) railway workshops, at a total cost of about £20,000, for treatment of departmental supplies of New Zealand timber. The plant will be capable readily of extension to treat timber for other departments.

In making this announcement, the Minister of Railways (Hon. W. B. Taverner) said that the Department was convinced that it would benefit by securing better conditioned, more lasting timber for its constructional work. By cheaper, as well as more effective conditioning, kiln-drying would allow indigenous timber to replace a great deal of imported timber, and would render useful for constructional purposes a considerable amount of sap wood and non-heart grades, that would emerge as an inferior product from the old seasoning process of air-drying.