INTRODUCTION OF OPOSSUMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16338, 19 September 1916, Page 6

INTRODUCTION OF OPOSSUMS.

The proposal for the introduction of opossums to the Auckland district, to which some reference has been made in tho columns of the Herald, should be carefully considered by the Department of Internal Affairs before any action is taken. There is no doubt that the habits of the opossum, as they are, known in Australia, give the fruitgrowers cause for anxiety at the suggested introduction here. The fruitgrowers have a right to be considered in the matter and the claim that their industry is endangered is sufficiently strong to make full inquiry an essential preliminary to the contemplated step. It is evident from the Department's letter to the Acclimatisation Society that it is searching for information- One view has been put forward by the Acclimatisation Society and another by Mr. R. J. Terry, an ex-officer of the Department of Agriculture in Tasmania. If the case against the opossum has not been proven it certainly cannot be claimed that tho dangers to which Mr. Terry alludes, and with which everybody is more or less familiar, have been shown to be unreal. The fruit industry in New Zealand has a great future, and the Dominion cannot afford even the risk of penalising it for the sake of a few opossum skins. Whether that risk is great or small the Government can ascertain by full and impartial inquiry in Australia.