BUTTER BOXES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 101, 10 April 1933, Page 9

BUTTER BOXES

WHITE PINE POPULAR. TRIAL OF SUBSTITUTE. The New Zealand white pine, ui t* give it its Maori name, the kahikulca, is a graceful pine, which adorns most of the New Zealand forests, and is one of the glories of (he New Zealand bush ia berry time, says a writer in thw “Swcdish-Austrulian Trade Journal.” The white pine is almost luumed tw day, except as a butter-box luutenuß Culike the forest wonder, the totnra—i sacred tree of the Maori, who fashioaed from its imperishable wood cuuuo* and gods —the white pine will not withstand outside wear. Exposed to the weather it rots, whereas the totura will resist all weathers and all seasons, and emerge in 190 years almost ns sound a* the day it was put down. The white pine, when it was proved beyond doubt, that it would not withstand werther wear, was used extensively in earlier days for ninny itidoo* purposes. Then the discovery wad made that it was an ideal wood lor butter-boxes. It was odourless and cleanly, so both Australia and New Zealand took it to its heart as a supcß fine container for exported butter. Millions of feet of white pine in a few months, been shipped from tM Dominion to Australia, to be convened, for tho most part, into the familiar i mstaiucr in which butter is exported, mt the New Zealand forests ui the u ul pine are being rapidly cut out; In ica the necessity for finding an u.iim,. i* substitute. Experiments to this enu ar* proceeding on both sides of tile i Hainan. An interesting experiment is being made in New Zealand with wood-pulp containers for butter export. I'M white pine box costs Is 5d to nmnui nature. The wood-pulp substitute, pros duoed from New Zealand woods, ecu bd turned out i . quantities for about 8d apiece, a saving of 9d per container, and somewhere in the vicinity of £1 HINDOO a year in package und other costa now borne by the dairying The new pulp container weighs undec 31b, or 51b less thuu the pine box, which means a substantial reduction in tranw port costs. It is constructed in oua piece, is wholly sanitary, and, in th* opinion of one of the foremost dairy; experts in the Dominion, writing ia the “Timber Growers’ (Quarterly Review” (the official organ of the Nc*J Zealand Timber Growers’ Association), will presently become tho butter container of the future. I'avourublo judgment has already been passed on an experimental butter-filled box sent to London. Queensland also is experimenting with methods for the removal of taint t* butter exported in boxes constructed of Queensland pine. These include a shipment of butter recently to London packed in a veneered box, which, it ia claimed, avoids all risks of taint to th* butter, and, moreover, cannot be imi« tated by exporters from Russia, ah* are suspected of packing butter ia boxes which closely resemble. those reaching the United Kingdom from Australia, New Zealand, and Denmark. Tha veneered box from Queensland cun ba manufactured more cheaply than tha pine box of New Zealand; but if th* Dominion’s wood-pulp container provea the better, and cheaper, it may set up another problem for timber andi butter men to solve on both sides ot the Tasman.