OPOSSUM SKINS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 210, 18 August 1933, Page 10

OPOSSUM SKINS

ILLEGAL TRAFFIC. POLICE SEIZURE IN SYDNEY. In the course of two raids in Sydney recently detectives seized 2000 opossum skins, done up in bales with an outer covering of wool or rabbitskins. Six detectives set out in motor-cars for buildings in the city and Burwood. Offices of a firm were visited near the Customs House. Then one parly proceeded to tho Darling Harbour railway goods yards. A number of bales—some of wool and others of rabbitskins —were opened. It is alleged that these bales contained several hundred opossum skins. Detectives said that only an intensive search revealed the nature of tho bales, as they had been packed stoutly enough to resist rough handling without allowing the protected skins to show on the outside. Other detectives visited a house at Burwood. Skins were found in several rooms and the garage. A thorough search was made and one of the detectives noticed that there was no draught through a small ventilator. The walls were tapped and it was found that a portion of the wall had been bricked over recently. These bricks were removed and hundreds of skins were found packed tightly between the walls of two rooms. The smell of the imperfectlypreserved skins was unpleasant and clung to the clothing of the searchers. When one of the detectives returned to his home his fox terrier refused to recognise its master. The 2000 opossum skins which were seized were stamped with a special Government brand and handed to a firm of skin merchants, who will dispose of the skins and pay the proceeds into Government revenue. The detectives say they are convinced that an extensive traffic in tho skins of protected native animals is being carried on and that many men have been making big profits in this illegal trade. Information received by the police has indicated that numbers of trappers in tho less-populated parts of the country have forwarded tho skins of opossums and native bears to Sydney by rail after they had disguised their nature. It is alleged that several firms received the skins in Sydney and consigned them overseas by means of falsely-worded invoices and other papers.