RABBIT INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22505, 25 February 1935, Page 10

RABBIT INDUSTRY

ANGORA WOOL PRODUCTION L_ YOUNG GIRL'S SUCCESS (From Con Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 14. Two years ago a girl of 14 pleaded with her father for an Angor rabbit. To-day she runs an industry which is thriying on the wool of 250 rabbits. This girl, Eileen Halls, of Tempe, a Sydney suburb, not only breeds the Angoras, but shears their wool, cards and spins it and knits her own samples. Last year her product was on sale in Sydney's leading retail stores. "We could Bee she had a liking for animals," said her mother, "and as she had to find something to do, her father agreed to ' finance' her when the opportunity arose for her to buy 40 thoroughbred rabbits. I and two others help with the spinning and knitting." Eileen realised that Angora wool was too expensive to gain a large market, and this year she experimented with Angora plied with merino. The results have been so successful that a city store is putting on an exhibition of her goods. Chinchilla and Siamese sable rabbits are also bred, and recently Miss Halls had the satisfaction of seeing the pelts assembled for her first fur coat. The coat has already been sold; the value of the pelts was £3O. Hats, berets, cravats and a hundred other articles that she has fashioned from her wool have found a popular market. The Angora wool industry is of growing importance to New South Wales. "Rabbitries" are dotted round the countryside near Sydney, and are nearly all conducted by girls or women. The la 'gest is probably on a main traffic artery which is a popular route for week-end motorists. Its owners make money not only from the products of the rabbits, of which there is a remarkable collection, but also from inspection fees paid by hundreds of visitors every week-end. A womai. and her two daughters conduct this profitable business, which has already paid for a visit to England by them.