THE BUTTER-BOX PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1236, 19 September 1911, Page 8

THE BUTTER-BOX PROBLEM.

AN AUSTRALIAN VIEW. The butter-box problem is becoming acute, and (says the Melbourne ,v Age"), if more attention is not paid to lis preservation of timber sapplies, ono of the greatest and most rapidly-expanding branches of our export trade will be jeopardised. J

_ Tho outlook is creating anxiety, and the rising prico of New Zealand and Queensland niiva has causcd tho Minister for Agriculture to turn his attention to Victorian woolly butt. The suitability of this timber for butter packing is being tested both locally and in connectioA with tho export trade, some butter placed in wodlly butt boxes having been sent to London. Ivccent developments have shown tho mistake mado by Victorian exporters in not accepting the offer of' hcop piuo made to Mr. R. V. Billis when he visited Queensland. Supplies for several years' trade could then have been secured, at a quotation of about sixpence per box lower than tho present price of New Zealand whito pine. If the-Gippsland woolly butt is as valuable, as it is'said to be, for furniture making, more lasting use should bo made of it than turning it into butter boxes. In any case,_ the quantity is limited. Future supplies for the butter trade depend on forest conservation, as neither tho New Zealand nor tho Queensland pino forests are likely, by natural germination, to long sustain tho inroads which are being made upon them. The New Zealand white pine has been little tested in Victorian soil. Tho Moreton Bay hoop pine, on tlie other hand, is to be seen flourishing in tho parks about Melbourne. All over the world reafforestation has become ono. of the pressing problems of the day, and the most practical method of saving the butter trade would bp to sot up a collateral industry of equal importance, by restocking our denuded forest areas with the best adapted timber trees, whether conifers or eucalypts.