OPOSSUM SEASON

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 221, 19 June 1928, Page 6

OPOSSUM SEASON

A GOOD MANY TENDERS IN TRAPPING STARTS NEXT MONTH Bitterly cold weather, with continuous rain, disagreeably proclaims the fact that it is nearly time for the opossum t<, wear his thickets coat —and in the mountain forests of Wellington’s hinterland it enn be very cJd. It is in these short, bleak days of winter that the opossum is inclined to run a little short of food, and anything that looks like, or smells like, a dainty morsel makes him (or her) inordinately curious. They must know what it is, what it feels like, what it tastes like, when —snap I Cruel strong teeth ei-ash their way into fur, flesh and bone—and there is anol her skin for some fair lady’s coat in Faris, Petrograd, or Peking. There, is no release, no relenting in these deadly steel claws, whose bite only goes deepet’ with each movement ol its 'helpless victim. Opossum traps are merely large rat traps of the common type, only very strongly made and heavy enough to pre-, vent any small animal dragging them far (when they arc not anchored). But tbc chances of an opossum dragging one of these traps far is remote. It is said that a wolf will gnaw its own foot oft when caught in a trap, but an opossum dies much more readily. He may be eaught by the bead, when the steel jaws would at once break his neck, but il it is a leg he either dies.of exhaustion and loss of blood er has to be knocked on the head.

The trapping season for opossums in the Wellington district opens next month. Tenders for the various blocks of 'land now owned by the City Coucil at Akatiirawa, and also at Waintti and Orougorongo. have closed. A good many have been received, and a report on them and the allocation will be presented to the Water Board at to-morrow’s meeting. There is, however, plenty of opossum land outside the domain of the Wellington City Corporation's, on both sides ol the lower Tararuas, and particularly in Ihe bush at. the. back of Waikanae and Otaki. Trappers on these lauds simply have to pay for their license and the Is, per skin royalty to the Government. In the Wellington district the Orongorongo and Waintti areas, opened up last winter, provejl splendid trapping grounds, but were not. so lucrative to the trappers, who paid as much as 3s. 6d. royally (on top of the Government’s Is. and the cost of the license). Still, there is good money in it for the trapper who knows his business and works hard and methodically, for the Wellington skins arc as good as any in the world, and a good man may easily average 10s. per skin when the market is sound.