Tanner Concerned At State Of Skins

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30630, 22 December 1964, Page 15

Tanner Concerned At State Of Skins

The poor condition of yearling stock going into freezing works is losing New Zealand more than half of its

first grade leather, says “Meat Market,” a journal Sublished by R. and W. Heliby Ltd., of Auckland. The tell-tale effects of barbed wire, starvation, tick and follicular mange show up clearly in skins going through the country’s tanneries and hundreds of these skins have to be put aside every day for processing into leather of a much lower grade.

“Fanners must be losing a lot of money just as we are losing the chance to make the greatest possible amount of top grade leather,” said Mr L. Astley of E. Astley and Sons of New Lynn, Auckland, who have one of the biggest tanneries in New Zealand.

Mr Astley said leather manufacturers and the whole fanning industry faced “very serious competition” from leather substitutes.

“Here is a definite danger. For poor hides make poor leather and a good substitute could be a threat to this leather. But good leather has no substitute,” he said.

The impact of synthetics had not yet been felt fully in New Zealand. Substitutes for upper leather in shoe

lanufacture had only recentr gone into production verseas.

, “But we know already what can happen,” said Mr Astley. He referred to the disappearance of leather in car upholstery and its replacement with synthetics. “This happened overnight and was a major blow to the leather industry. New Zealand is now in the situation of being about the only country where the motorist is not able to stipulate leather.”

Mr Astley said the type of farming in New Zealand was largely responsible for the wastage in best skins. Yearlings running in high country were susceptible to injury from thorn and manuka. The damage done by barbed wire was incredible.

“Bobby calf skins from animals only a few days old frequently reach us in a badly scratched condition. How this can be allowed to happen, I don’t know.”

The company puts through an average of 1000 yearling skins a week. A good half of these have to be rejected as unsuitable for full grain leather. They are set aside for grain correction, a process which involves wearing down the skin surface to eliminate cuts, and blemishes from tick and manges, and replacing the natural surface with an artificial one. Negative Attitude

“Tanners have been pushing for better stock but nothing is being done and there is a negative attitude generally to what is really a considerable problem for the country,” said Mr Astley. He said that, with comparable skins and hides, New Zealand produced leathers every bit as good as those which had a high reputation in Britain and the United States.

Herefords and Shorthorns made the best leather, with Aberdeen Angus the next choice. “But we don’t know the condition of a skin till we are part-way through tanning it into leather. Its very disheartening to say the least to find more than half of the skins from yearlings in such a bad condition,” Mr Astley said.