SMUGGLING SHEEP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22939, 18 January 1938, Page 6

SMUGGLING SHEEP

SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE PELTS FOR ASTRAKHAN I FROM OCR OWX CORRESPONDENT] CAPETOWN. Dec. 20 The arid districts of the North-West Cape, once the natural home of illicit diamond buying, have discovered a new means of earning money riskily outside the law. The smuggling of Karakul rams from the mandated territory of South-West Africa has become a thriving industry. Before the Great War the Germans, to whom South-West Africa belonged, imported a few stud Karakul sheep, which were found to thrive in thp territory's dry, bracing climate. Karakul sheep produce all the world's supplies of Astrakhan fur. The lambs are slaughtered and skinned within 24 hours of birth, yielding pelts which sell for good prices in world markets. The South - West Administration, when it discovered a few years ago that it had the means to a profitable industry, imposed a ban on the export of Karakul stock frofii the territory. It was afraid that the breed would do well in the Karoo districts of the Cape and swamp the markets. South African sheep farmers, however. seeing the success of breeders in Soutli-West Africa, are willing to pay high prices for good rams, and it has been found easy to smuggle stock over the border. Drought lias dried the Orange Kiver. making it possible to drive sheep through the bed at night. Many head, too, are said to be brought in bv motor lorry, hidden under mounds of innocent goods. Only the rams are necessary, for a cross with the indigenous haired sheep (the Afrikander) produces saleable pelts.