FRUIT PRESERVING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 151, 22 March 1939, Page 6

FRUIT PRESERVING

Record Season As Result Of Import Restrictions

SCARCITY OF SCREW TOPS FOR JARS Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, March 21. It is dear from the sale of glass containers in Auckland that the season will prove a record for Hie quantity of fruit that has been preserved, despite the fact that in the past few weeks there has been an abnormal scarcity of screw tops for jars. Supplies of tops have now arrived from Australia and within a few days the scarcity will disappear. The import restrictions on preserved fruits are chiefly responsible for the large amount of preserving of local fruits. Hotels ami boardinghouses, as well as housewives who previously relied on imported supplies for most* of their requirements, have been engaged in preserving fruits. That their efforts have been handicapped by the shortage of screw tops, which led to large cancellations of orders for glass jars, is said to be in no why caused, however, by import restrictions on the tops, wbidi are drawn from Australia. Delays in the arrival of supplies of these arose from a shortage of zinc in Australia. Zinc is rolled by the Australian manufacturers about once a year, and when manufacturers changed to the use of aluminium an unexpected increase in the demand in Australia created a shortage in this metal and also in the supply of screw tops and jam jars. Auckland distributors have been filling orders in both the North and South Island in strict rotation and it is expected that by tomorrow outstanding orders by merchants will have been filled. Tlie position in the retail shops will then speedily be righted.