Kangaroo Skins.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 169, 24 January 1888, Page 3

Kangaroo Skins.

MASTERTON BECOMES NOTORIOUS. (New York Mail r id Express). There are 0000 kangaroo skins received in Newark, N.J., every week. They a.e all tanked in one large establishment on Sussex-avenue and are then made into f 10 shoes. Australia and New Zealand furnish kangaroo Hues for the world. The kangaroos arc killed in Australia, about 3000 miles back from tho coast, and ure shipped from Melbourne, Sydney, and Newcastle, in Australia, and from Mas ter ton, in New Zealand. Up till iB6O tho kangaroos were killed and eaten in Atislia a and the hides were cut un into shoestrings. But an Englishman named Biown in that year discovered tho remarkable character of the leather and brought several thousand skins to f u j a country, lie tried to sell the hides to • tanners, but they were shy of the novelty,

and he had to sell them at a sacrifice to a bookbinder. The bookbinder made triangular corner pieces in ledgers and commercial books out of the skins, and ; so ascertained the gc>.,d quality of the leather. It was in thL way that the large leather factories were first attracted to kangaroo hide. The skin was found to be very tenacious, and the compactness of the grain pr vent; its abs Thing water, while the acid> in blacking meets with an almost imperious substance. It. was bard work for years to gat the kangaroo skins. It was’ not um.ll iuo Newarker, who now tans them, sent agents to Australia three years ago that the demand could be supplied. The characteristic climate of Australia and the pugnacity of the kangaroo make hunting the hides dangerous. Winter starts in May and ends in December in that country. During the rest of the year the heat is intense, the thermometer frequently reaching 140 degrees. Eight men hunt together for kangaroos. They are called a “set.” Whey brought to bay, the kangaroo jumps like a flash for the hunter’s breast, aud tries to crush it with its fore-feet. To prevent this, each ruan wears across his breast a two or three-inch thick matting. Armed with a spear, with a club attached to the other end, they ride upon swift horses into the midst of a herd. With the agibty and equipoise of circus riders, they stand erect upon their horses and use their spears and clubs. The kangaroo is able to jump clean over a horse. As the game is bagged it is skinned, and the skin is stretched on the ground and pegged down, to prevent shrinkage. The flesh furnishes moat for the camp. Each man places a private mark on his booty, and when they have obtained a hundred skins apieoo they r-tiun back to civilisation. There arc twenty varieties of kangaroos, among them the blue, red Wallaby, black gray, and Forester, tho latter furnishing the best leather, as it lives mainly in wooden sections. When the shipping ports are reached the hunters dispose of their skins by auction to the highest bidders, and reab.se about 70 cents a pound. Kangaroo hunters make large profits. One man is known to have cleared 4500d01s free of living expenses in a single year.

Tho tanning'of kangaroo skins is confined to mon employed by Americans, as other dealers cannot afford to pay the high prices for the raw material. The result is that Parisian and Loudon shoe manufacturers buy their stock of kangaroo leather directly from Newark, and prominent dealers in Germany, Greece, Spain, aud even Australia itself obtain their supplies from the same.