THE BUTTER-BOX PROBLEM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3332, 26 September 1911, Page 2

THE BUTTER-BOX PROBLEM.

AN AUSTRALIAN VIEW.

The butter-box problem is becoming acute, and (says the. Melbourne “Age”) if more attention is not paid to the preservation of timber supplies, one of the greatest and most rapidly-expand-ing branches of our export trade will be jeopardised. The outlook is creating anxiety, and the rising price of New Zealand and Queensland pine has caused the 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 connection with the export trade, some butter placed in woolly butt boxes having been sent to London. Recent developments have shown the mistake made by Victorian exporters in not accepting the offer of hoop pine 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 the present price of New Zealand white pine. If the Gjppsland woolly butt is as valuable, as it is said to be, for furniture making, more lasting use should he 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 the New Zealand nor the Queensland pine forests are likely, by natural germination, to long sustain the inroads which are being made upon them. The Mew Zealand white pine has been little tested in Victorian soil. The Moreto.n Bay hoop pine, on the other hand, is to be seen flourishing in the parks about Melbourne. All over the world reafforestation has become one of the pressing problems of the day, and the most practical method of saving the butter trade would be to set up a collateral industry of equal importance, by restocking our denuded forest areas with the best adapted timber trees, whether conifers or eucalyptus.