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Otago Witness, Issue 3860, 6 March 1928, Page 11

the offer of Americans to sell their secret precess for a large sum. Marine Industries, Ltd., with its base at Port Stephens, has succeeded independently and made the first Australian commercial shaik leather (says the Sydney Guardian of a recent date). Behind the success is the skill and patience of one of the cleverest leather experts in the Empire. Mr Frank C. Coombs, a son of Mr John Cocrnbs, of North-East Valley, Dunedin, and now professor of chemistry and tanning at the Technical College, Sydney. As a Government official, he tackled the problem for the. sake of the new industry, and applied and improved on methods originally suggested in England. The samples are from three different types of shark—the tiger, the whaler, and the grey nurse. Strong, flexible, and free from grease, they are also attractive in grain, colour, “ feel.” and odour.. The tiger gives a coarse, bold grain suitable for the manufacture of travelling cases. Shoes and handbags could be made from the finer-grained whaler, and cases, trinket boxes, etc., from the grey nurse, which isjiistinguished by its parallel lines. Marine Industries, Ltd., now contemplates expansion. It will probably move from Port Stephens, in order to find calmer waters in a semi-tropical region of the coast. Gales and storms have interfered with the coastal fishing in this State. The company does not depend on leather alone. Oil, fins, and meat are all marketed. The fishermen use the gill net, which hangs like a vertical curtain touching the sea bottom Sharks entangled in it nearly always *' drown ” before reaching the -sur face, for their furious panicky efforts to get free aparently. stop the gill action.