A MATTER OF BUTTER BOXES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7934, 6 January 1906, Page 6

A MATTER OF BUTTER BOXES.

Immense quantities of white pine are annually to Australia from New Zealand for conversion into butter boxes. An agitation has been, set afoot to displace the New Zealand timber with Queensland white pine, and sawmillers in this colony are watching with interest the tests which are being conducted by experts in Australia with the object of ascertaining whether the New Zealand article can be done without. In the most recent tests by Government experts in Sydney butter from the same churning was placed in boxes made of New Zealand white pine and Queensland white pine. The butter (sajs the Sydney Morning Herald) was placed in cold storage for a time, and was taken out two days before the examination, so that it might be in about the same condition in which butter usually appears on the grocer's counter. The boxes were brought out with the outsides covered so that the wood oould not be recognised. The Chief Dairy Expert and an expert in J the trade then made a very careful examination driving the trier down several times beside the wood and withdrawing samples. The butter was then turned out of the boxes, and again examined very carefully. Each of the experts detected a slight woody flavour in one box, but it oould not be described as a taint, and was not sufficient to affect the sale of the butter. The box turned out to be that made of Queensland pine, but the experts were satisfied that if both butters were offered for sale there would not be a hair's difference in the price. So far as it goes the test proved that butter pu| up and kept under ordinary conditions in Queensland pine was not depreciated in value, but' whether this result can safely be taken as a guide to what would happen} if targe quantities were packed in this wood is problematical,