TIMBER FOR BUTTER BOXES.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 June 1922, Page 8

TIMBER FOR BUTTER BOXES.

DAIRYMEN THINK PRICE TOO HIGH! THREAT TO IMPORT HEMLOOK, A fight to reduce the price of timber for butter boxes is at present proceeding between certain dairy factory companies and the sawmillers, and is waxing pr&tty hot. The price for last year’s supplies of butter-box timber was fixed •by the Board of Trade at 23s Gd per lOQft., f.0.r., Ohakune. The sawmillers this year have reduced the price by 2s, but some of the dairy factories are endeavouring to force the price still lower by threatening to import hemlock 'from the Pacific Coast of America, which for the moment is a fairly cheap timber. 2k prominent sawmiller informed a Dominion representative that if the threat was carried out, it may mean a serious thing for the New Zealand butter trade, as, according to The Timberman of April last, Pacific hemlock is not recommended for use in the manufacture of containers for foodstuffs that are inclined to become tainted should the wood be subjected to dampness and resume its sour odour. “It is nevertheless well suited,” continues The Timberman, "to the manufacture of boxes and crates for dry foodstuffs, fruits, canned goods, and a large majority of other commodities shipped in wooden containers. Green hemlock has a noticeable sourness which disappears when the wood is thoroughly dry. The odour is said, however, to return to a certain extent when the wood reabsorbs moisture.” The Australian 'butter interests have tried out hemlock, but the proof of their experiments appears to lie in the fact that they still insist upon having New Zealand white pine, which ultimately costs them almost treble what they could procure hemlock for at the present time.