SHORTAGE OF JARS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22656, 10 March 1939, Page 15

SHORTAGE OF JARS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS Sir, —In “The Press” of yesterday, Wednesday, March 8, there was an article entitled' “Shortage of Jars,” in which it stated that there was a shortage of jam jars. There is always a back-door out of every difficulty in this world. If you can't get one thing, you can get something else to answer your purpose. After all, an ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory There are lots of cardboard cartons used for putting up übiquitous icecream; these are grease-proof. I speak now from experience: in Nairobi, Kenya Colony, I had big orders to put up for native hospitals up country. I was faced with the prospect of large quantities of ointments and nothing to put them in, as there was' a great shortage of every sort of containers, especially tins, in Kenya. I had a brain-wave, and thought of the cartons used for cream, etc., out there. They proved a great success, and I was able to fulfil my orders to everybody’s satisfaction. After all, “Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.” Char-

acter is made by struggling against long odds: our hands are to carry out what the brain suggests. If we do not make use of our gifts mental and spiritual, they will perish for want of use. To revert to the dearth of jam jars. Are there not any cheap cups and glasses still to be had? There is a great wastage of tins of every description; why can’t they be made use of? The Japanese could give New Zealand a few tips in economy and the manufacture of by-products. If life is made too easy for us we will become

an effete race. Opposition is the ginger of life.—Yours, etc., OLIVE L. CROOKE. March 9, 1939.