FUR FARMERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 55, 14 September 1928, Page 9

FUR FARMERS

«i ■ IMPORTATION OF RABBITS (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 6th September. Tho news that 20 Chinchilla and 50 Angora rabbits have been shipped to New Zealand is more than interesting in view of the set-back which has been given to the fur farming proposal in Australia, because of the fa«t, apparently, that the mere word "rabbit" is anathema in tho Commonwealth, and the fear that rabbits specially imported and bred for their fur will be allowed to run loose and join their legion but plebian cousins. The unfavourable attitudo towards this new industry is incomprehensible even to many men on tho land who realise that, as in other countries, rabbits specially bred for their fur have as little chance of escape, under proper restrictions, as the animals in the zoo. The value of these specially-imported rabbits is regarded as ample guarantee in itself that their owners will take excellent care of them, and will not allow them to get on friendly or amorous terms with tho rabbits which have been brought tinder the Pests Act. At the recent conference dealing with the furfarming proposal tho balance-sheet was produced of a lady who invested £2000 in a fur farm in Great Britain. This showed a return for the first year alone of close on £1300. It is said that, starting with a buck and three does, a man, even in a small way, can own a rabbi try stocked with 400 in two years. New Zealand upX^arently has more faith than Australia in fur farming as a safe commercial proposition.