WHITE PINE BOXES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 65, 19 March 1925, Page 6

WHITE PINE BOXES

COMPETITION PROM SWEDEN.

From the successful experiments made last season in the use of Swedish timber for butter boxes, it looks as though the day of the New Zealand white pine for that purpose is Hearing its close. The scarcity of white pine resources and the demand for the timber fo3^other purposes has resulted in] the butter box and cheese crate becoming dearer and dearer. This has culminated in drawing on far-away Sweden for supplies. The experience of the National Dairy Association is that!the rapid disappearance of, the New Zealand timber most suitable for dairy packages has forced the attention of producers to packing material from overseas. This is now arriving from Sweden in "shooks," that is,, the timber cut, planed, and (if required) printed with brands, all ready for nailing up for containing butter or cheese, as--the case may be. The price of the Swedish spruce (piciea excelsa) boxes and crates in this form atthe main ports of New Zealand is substantially below the price for the white pine article —viz., Bid. cheaper for the butter box and anything from 6d to Is 5d in respect to cheese crates. The joining up of the Swedish timber for the butter box and cheese crates, tops and bottoms, is done with extreme neatness, so that it is difficult at a, glance to tell where the join is. There is a lock-joint, and this is secured with casein glue, the whole lending itself to planing to a high de gree of smoothness, and to rough handling—when the container is filled, and if it is securely nailed in the first instance. The branding "of the name of the factory on a box or crate is done at the cost of 2s per 100 packages. The duty on the boxes amounts to roughly l^d and on crates to 2^d.' A drawback ia allowed by the Customs for export. A representative factory in Taranaki estimates, that its savings on purchase of the Swedish packages has been equivalent to another per pound on its but-ter-fat return.