PACKING CASES

Evening Star, Issue 23687, 21 September 1940, Page 10

PACKING CASES

REASONS FOR INCREASED CASTS OFFER TO PATRIOTIC COUNCIL A paragraph in last night’s ‘ Star ’ regarding the scarcity of packing cases and the prohibitive cost of new cases has drawn a statement from the manager of one local box factory which gives an indication of why costs have increased. Timber at the mill, he states, has risen in price, while the recent 5 per cent, wages increase has meant equivalent all-round increases in handling and manufacturing charges. The action of the Transport Board in preventing the direct cartage by road from mill to factory has meant the addition of 3s fid a 100 ft in extra handling between mill and railway and betweei) railway and factory. The railway rate from Kelso, which is the nearest point handy to Dunedin from which timber can be procured, is described as “ killing ” at 4s lOd a 100 ft. Finally, nails, essential in case manufacture, have risen nearly 50 per cent, since the war. In view of these increases it is little wonder the cost *of cases has risen considerably, while the scarcity of supplies, due to the difficulty of obtaining sufficient timber for all requirements, must have a supply and demand bearing on costs. _ . The manager providing this_ information said he had not put up his charges proportionately, but he had ceased planing the wood. He_ objected to what he termed suggestions of profiteering in the paragraph, but no such suggestions were implied. He was, he said, supplying cases to the Patriotic Council, and had no desire to profit from his dealings with that body. Indeed, he said, if the council could obtain the timber he was willing to let its own workers use his faetbry equipment for cutting up cases and putting the timber together.