TAX ON OPOSSUM SKINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21899, 7 September 1934, Page 15

TAX ON OPOSSUM SKINS

Sir, —Scores of farmers hard put to j it for needful cash have this year been | trapping opossums on their properties, j and now when they come to sell the I skins they find that the acclimatisation societies take charge and demand ninepence per skin, which has to be paid before they allow the skins to be sold. The average price per skin this year will not be ss, but even at that the acclimatisation societies will receive 3s in the pound, and the Government Is, a total of 4s in the pound, surely the record tax. If this 4s in the pound was all being used to help the unemployed we would think we were being called upon to do more than our share. But when we know that the 3s in the pound grabbed by the acclimatisation societies is being used to provide shooting and fishing for sportsmen, most of whom are wealthy enough to pay for their own sport, the whole thing seems to ua to be an iniquitous imposition. I am paying £4 to the Auckland Acclimatisation Society this month, but if I go shooting or fishing I have to pay the same licence fee as the wealthiest sportsman, who has not contributed another penny. TJndebdog.