A NEW INDUSTRY

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1930, Page 2

A NEW INDUSTRY

BUTTER BOXES FROM STRAW

CHRISTCHURCH, February 21

The establishment of a new industry in New Zealand, that of the manufacture of stawboard and cardboard from wheat straw, is planned by a syndicate which intends building a factory at either Timaru or Tinwald. Wheat straw will be stacked at the factory, to oe’inade into stout cardboard for use as butter boxes.

Mr R. Cable, one of the Christchurch members of the .syndicate, who represents Auckland and Sydney interests, stated that a sample of the cardboard had been tested by the State Forest Service, and had been pronounced as satisfactory. Demand for wheat straw for this industry would give the farinei a market for what otherwise wa.s often waste. The syndicate worked on the basis of giving farmers £1 per ton for straw on the farm. . On a conservative estimate of a ton of wheat straw to the acre, this would be equivalent to another 8d per bushel for wheat. Mr Cable said that over 3,C00,C00 butter boxes, mainly white pine timber, were exported from New Zealand each year. They cost about Is lfd, each, but the company could' make them from cardboard at slightly less than Is. Such boxes had been tested in one of the local dairies and had been found satisfactory.

The main persons connected with the new enterprise, Mr Cable said, were Mr C. Earle (public accountant, of Sydney), Mr W. B. Sonter (a company director of Auckland), and Mr J. Stanley (a research chemist from

Canada, who is at present in Christchurch). AY hen the factory was first established it would employ about 35 men.