The Government continued to sell large areas of kauri forests to sawmillers who, under no restrictions, took the most effective and economical steps to secure the timber, resulting in much waste and destruction. At a sale in 1908 more than 5,000 standing kauri trees, totalling about 20,000,000 superficial feet (47,000 m3), were sold for less than £2 per tree (£2 in 1908 equates to around NZ$100 in 2003). It is said that in 1890 the royalty on standing timber fell in some cases to as low as twopence (NZ$0.45 in 2003) per 100 superficial feet (8 pence/m3), though the expense of cutting and removing it to the mills was typically great due to the difficult terrain where they were located.