The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1946. TIMBER FOR BUTTER BOXES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 118, 23 May 1946, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1946. TIMBER FOR BUTTER BOXES

VYT’RITING to the West Coast timber millers the Hon. D. ’,.■, ” Sullivan, Minister of Industries and Commerce, stated that the humid atmosphere of the "West Coast did not permit of the adequate drying of white pine for butter boxes, and that it was considered unsafe to pack butter in boxes manufactured in the district. The evidence in support of this startling statement was not supplied. The supply of white pine is now for practical purposes restricted to the west coast of the South Island. This timber is sought for the purpose of making butter boxes because of the absence of taint. The supply, however, is not now so plentiful that wasteful methods may be employed in its utilisation. If there is ground for not making this timber into boxes on the West Coast, then that ground should be carefully examined because the history of the timber industry indicates that it is more economic to ship the finished product than to export the raw material. Sweden is a great timber-producing country and one of its major markets is the United Kingdom. Formerly the unsawn and sawn lumber was shipped to the market, it being stacked for transport on the decks of the. steamers. It was found more desirable, however, 1o make up doors and window gashes, pack them flat, and then dispatch them, but not as deck cargo. Recently the United iKngdom purchased from Sweden 5000 ready-cut houses. By analogy it would appear tiiat the cutting of butter boxes on the West Coast and shipping them flat would be an economic way of servicing the dairying industry. It is claimed that a timber saving of from 20 to 25 per cent, can be. achieved by exporting the boxes. Seeing that the wastage and the dressing is not shipped as a result of manufacturing locally, the estimate may prove to be fairly accurate.

The moisture content of timber is an interesting- phase of the matter. It is of particular interest to Wanganui because it is by reason of the satisfactory atmospheric conditions that the furni-ture-manufacturing industry has grown to such large proportions in this city. Furniture manufactured in Wanganui can be supplied to a larger area without fear of undue alteration or warp, through the variation in the moisture content of the wood, than is the case in any other centre in this Dominion. But moisture content is never static. It is altering all the time, and butter boxes moving from the West Coast to the North Island do not undergo any more changes than the same boxes made in the North Island from wood shipped green from the West Coast when the latter pass through the tropies on their way to the United Kingdom. The differences in moisture content for timber seasoned on the West Coast and the same timber seasoned elsewhere cannot he very great, and by the time the two timbers have been deliverd as containers of butter in England the difference in the moisture content of the timber must be slighter still. Printa facie, the thesis advanced by the Minister of Industries and Commerce does not appear to be tenable, and in those, circumstances it would he desirable for him to make public the evidence upon which he bases his somewhat novel opinion.