FURS BY AIR

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 December 1934, Page 12

FURS BY AIR

SEASON’S SAVING IN CANADA.. Fur traders are making ever greater use of aeroplanes to bring their goods to. market. During the past few years the number of ’planes transporting pelts from the farthest outposts of Northern Canada and North Russia has been constantly increasiD»- X ~ Au official of Canadian Airways told a representative of “The Daily Telegraph” that his organisation is preparing to deal on a larger scale than ever before with consignments of furs which will be flown South during the coining winter to catch the market while the demand is still strong. Mr. J. Chadwick Brooks, secretary of the Hudson Bay Company, said that while ’planes would never entirely replace dog teams and water transport in the more rugged jjarts of Northern Canada, they were rendering a great service over areas where, routes had been established. ’Planes now served the Mackenzie River-Athabasca district of the NorthWest territories, bringing to the railheads in the space of a day or two pelts which in the old days would have had to be kept until the folowing autumn.

Owing to the costs of air transport only the higher-priced furs, such as the rarer species of fox, marten and mink, are generally transported by air. Some of the cargoes brought down from the Mackenzie River area are enormously valuable, £lO,OOO worth of furs being carried in a single trip. In addition to using aeroplanes for the transport of furs, officials of the trading companies are making a greater use of flying in their tours of inspection. Last winter one inspector visited as many posts in twenty-six flying days as he used to visit in two winters when travelling by dog-team. In Russia, since a commenmement was made a. little over three years ago with the air transport of furs from the Yenisei and Gulf of Ob districts of Northern Russia, the traffic has grown considerably. An official of Arcos Ltd. said that trips which once took up to three months by dog, reindeer and river transport could now he completed in a few days. The furs were brought to Tobolsk and Yeniseisk, on the Trans-Siberian Railway, by ’plane, and thence carried to Moscow and Leningrad by train. Half the furs, he added, are now forwarded to London for distribution.