POSSUM POACHING

Evening Star, Issue 19722, 24 November 1927, Page 14

POSSUM POACHING

PREVENTIVE POLICY LUMP SALES SYSTEM DETERIORATED AREAS. From the licensing and royalty points of view, the opossum industry is partly under the Department of Internal Affairs, partly under the State Forest Service, _ and partly under various acclimatisation societies. The problems of bettor breeding, of maintaining the wild stock at a point of and of preventing poaching need intensive study, and it may become necessary to create one control of wild life in order to secure efficient management. The fur trade of New Zealand (writes a Wellington correspondent) is of large and growing dimensions. When the opossum joined the rabbits on the commercial plane, a considerable step forward was taken, in volume and value of traffic. It coincidently happens that a great deal of New Zealand’s deteriorated farm country is suitable to_ opossums as wild life. Quite possibly in the future the point of balance between grass farming and fur production will move forward or backward according to the varying economic outlook of farming in its various forms and in various localities. FARMING AND FUR.

The purpose of this article is not to attempt to demarcate the boundary between farming and fur, but at the same time it may be pointed out that nothing is to bo gained by trying to ignore the existence of the rabbit and the opposum and their place in production. If the farmer does not effectively occupy the land, something else will. The something ' else will be growths that will encourage the multiplication of the rabbit, or the opossum, or the deer, or the wild pig, or the goat—perhaps all of them. Extermination of one or all of these animals would be a policy if it were possible. Regulation of their strength in certain districts would also be a policy, if it were properly done. But it is ho policy at all to ignore the facts of fur production or to try to solve the problem by lotting it drift. To be called a rabbit farmer is generally regarded as a reproach—and often it really is. But possibly, before long, New Zealand may have to ask itself seriously whether fur-farming is or is nob worth while. In _ other countries they farm the chinchilla rabbit and the Angora rabbit. Fox-farming also has como to stay in America. It may bo that the question of farming opossums in New Zealand will never arise, because many people hold that more can bo done with the opossum in its wild state than under any form of captivity. But to say that is not to say that opossums and opossum-takers can be allowed to go their own way. The development or an opossum industry requires the strictest administration, also the closest touch with the wild opossum stock, with the stocking _ of each district, with restocking requirements, and general problems of management. Quantity and quality of stock are just as important in a wild life industry as in any other.

MAINTAINING BALANCE OF WILD STOCKS.

The experience of the last opossumtaking season (July-August in Wellington district) is held to prove that certain areas of the Hutt basin, particularly on the Akatarara and Whakatiki side of it, have fallen low both in quantity and quality. Deterioration of the product of an area may bo due to errors of stocking in the first place and to poaching and over-trapping in the second place. There seems to be no doubt that in this case poaching and illegal trapping generally have been a considerable contributing cause of the degeneration. Skins havo become both scarce and poor compared with former seasons; and the returns of the 1927 season’s catch, as well as other evidence, suggest that a rest and other remedial measures are necessary for this area. Under a proper system of management u is held that deterioration would be observed and checked before being allowed to go so far, it being-con-sidered that prevention is better than cure. The aim is to keep opossum stocks within a certain safe margin, so that there shall not be too many for the well-being of the forest. If there is a point in numbers at -which the native bush can safely carry its opossum “ population,” and if this point can be attained and demonstrated by skilful management, then an important step will have been taken towards meeting tho criticism of those who fear that the opossum spells ruin to tho indigenous flora and fauna. Probably tbo same remark will bo found to apply to deer, pigs, and goats, but for the present Jet us stick to the opossum side of the question. Starting with stocking, tho stock should be well chosen. There are various kinds of opossum, and a thought should be put into finding and establishing tho variety of opossum that best suits tho district being dealt with. Natural features, life history of tho animal, and sound bush sense enter into that section of the business. Also commercial purposes are not served by crossing the colors in such a way that a district produces blues, browns, greys, and blacks, and all sorts. Proper stocking and management can add thousands of pounds to the industry in tho way of color and quality of skins. EFFICIENCY OF RANGERS. Protection from • poisoners and poachers in other forms requires a vigilant ranging service. A corps of rangers, to be effective, would need to be at least as high in standard of discipline and control as is the Police Force. If the police were administered by a series of small obscurely appointed committees called acclimatisation societies, what wonld_ the administration of the law he like ? And _ a ranger needs to be an even more special class of man than a police constable. He must be neither too aggressive nor too amiable; his supremacy must be as much moral as physical; he should be an excellent bushman as well as a tireless goer. Few people realise tho extent and the ramifications of the illegality with whicl forest rangers have to deal. Slackness of ranging in the past has done much to create law-breakers, for a law-abiding trapper who finds each season that his block has been poached and spoiled by close-season trappers or poisoners may feel constrained, in self-de-fence, to make a pre-season start himself; and this class of man, driven to poaching, may be the first to be caught. But although administrative slackness in the past has been partly to blame for unlawful practices, bad alike for opossum stocks and for straight-going trappers, nevertheless it is good-to see signs of a tightening up chat she aid place ah parties once more on something of a level. Conditions are bad indeed when people feel that “ it- pays to poach”; signs are not wanting that there will be an end to_ it. Given proper supervision, the skilful trapper can beat the poisoner, and trapping in season will pay. If the management wore well acouainted with the stocking and general condition of its areas, it could appraise the approximate value, and then annually offer the opossum-taking rights, by public tender or by auction, for sale at a lump sum. A trapper paying a lump sum to trap a block for himself alone would havo exclusive rights over it as agaginst other opossum-takers; his interest would be to protect it, and to ho Lis own ranger; and in that way a very .effective blow would probably bo struck at poaching, and at no cost to the management. Sale of season’s trapping

rights for a lump sum would be far better than sale at so much per skin, A trapper who is paying per skin has every temptation to sell some of his skins secretly, to avoid the levy. A trapper who has paid a lump sum (or a substantial deposit thereof) is under no such temptation.