FUR MARKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1932, Page 4

FUR MARKETS.

RABBIT SKINS AND OPOSSUMS. Mr. G. Stewart, managing director of Messrs. J. K. Mooney and Co., Dunedin, states that, in spite of adverse reports, he is optimistic regarding the future of full season high country rabbit skins, and is confident that present prices for these grades will hold. In fact, lie looks forward to an improvement in the very near future. At the sale held in Dunedin on June 21, first winters averaged sMsd per skin, and these grades were still wanted for the American and Continental furriers, provided they were well cared for. If the trapper wished to secure top prices, the onus, therefore, rested with him to sea that the skins were properly dried and fatted before being consigned to the local market. The same optimism, said Mr. Stewart, conld not be felt in connection with the secondary and inferior grades, owing to the enormous quantities stijl awaiting consumption in London and New York; and, further, the present fashions for hats were in favour of light fur, which meant that fur hat manufacturers were concentrating on Belgian and French whites. There was also a better tone from London regarding opossums, said Mr. Stewart, and an advance was expected at the next London sales. Mr. Stewart states that he has been receiving numerous inquiries from his various English and Continental agents, but, owing to the Government's decision to observe a close season this year, trappers would not participate in an advance unless the Government immediately opened the season.