Tracing ownership of pelts now worth it

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 37

Tracing ownership of pelts now worth it

PA Hamilton Meat industry scientists are investigating ways to trace pelts back to farmers once they have bem processed at the freezing works — so that they can be paid according to quality. By providing a clear matket signal to farmers abdit the worth of their pelfc it was hoped the quality standards would be 'maintained, said the Auckland Farmers Freez-ing'Co-operative’s general products marketing manager 4 , Mr Michael McKenztej They had recently approached scientists at the Mei Industry Institute to low at the

identification problem. It was difficult to identify the pelts as they had to go through the slaughter floor and pickling process before they reached the grading table, Mr McKenzie said. Tags were easily knocked off and so some sort of marking might be the solution. If farmers were encouraged to look after their stock, any major quality mishap in the future could be avoided, he said. “We are trying to look ahead and catch any slide in quality standards before they actually occur.” By penalising .farmers with pelts,

there would be an incentive for them to dip their stock and therefore produce high-quality hides, Mr McKenzie said. New Zealand’s export leather trade was growing in both size and value. Two years ago, one dozen pelts were worth $4O; now they were worth about $l5O, he said. Prospects for the coming season would be decided at the major leather fair in Paris which he would attend next week, Mr McKenzie said. Demand for leather was increasing all the time, particularly from the fashion-world and through the growing popularity of leather upholstery.

Calligraphy, the ancient art of decorative lettering, has broken new ground in this highly modern work by a Christchurch calligrapher, Mrs Colleen O’Connor. The large 2.5 m by 1.5 m work was commissioned by the University of Canterbury and will hang upstairs in the Student Union building. Mrs O’Connor was the university’s artist in residence during this year’s Orientation Week. The words of the West Coast writer, Peter Hooper, in his book, “Our Forest Ourselves,” inspired Mrs O’Connor. She was struck by their relevance to her task. “His words conjured up images of young people, the new society, forests and the land,” Mrs O’Connor said. The work, which is the

biggest Mrs O’Connor has done, took about three months to complete with the green and gold background painted on nine separate sheets of paper. The words were added later using a squarenibbed pen. Hand-made flax paper from the Centrepoint commune in Auckland was used after Mrs O’Connor read about the paper in a magazine. The large size of the work meant plastic rather than glass had to be used in framing. Although it was rarely taught in art schools, calligraphy was undergoing a renaissance with many people keen to learn, Mrs O’Connor said. She said calligraphy allowed versatility and she wanted to do a modern piece for the university, something that the students could jjflate to.