N.Z. DEER SKINS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 17977, 3 January 1933, Page 11

N.Z. DEER SKINS

TRIALS IN ENGLAND LARGE ORDERS FOLLOW LONDON, Nov. 17. An account is given in the current number of the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute of preliminary investigations into the use of New Zealand deer skins. With a view to finding a commercial outlet for the pelts of these animals the New Zealand Government approached the Imperial Institute Advisory Committee on Hides and Skins for an opinion on their value and market possibilities. The varieties of deer concerned included Fallow, Red, Sambur, Virginian or White-tailed, Chamois, Wapiti, and Thar. In July, 1931, a consignment of pelts was received from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Zealand.

The consignment was divided between two of the principal firms of deer-skin dressers in England, who had agreed to carry out dressing trials. As a result the first firm reported: “Wo consider these goods should have definite uses in this country, and we are prepared to make a trial of a bulk sample of 500 to 1000 skins. “The 75 skins we have dressed are of good quality. In the raw we noticed that they were well stretched and dried, but in the few that we have faced we find in one or two a certain amount of damage, due to slight putrefaction before drying. From the information you have given us as to the conditions under which these skins are collected we fear that a little of this is inevitable. “Wo understand that collectors have hitherto been instructed not to bring in skins with more than two shot-holes. This standard is in our opinion too high, and must add unnecessarily to the cost of the goods shipped. We suggest that skins containing up to four holes but otherwise of good quality should ho classed as bests. At the same time a slightly lower selection still would lit? o? value, and if our suggestion to take a bulk sample of bests is carried out, wo propose that a bale of the inferior goods should be sent also for test and valuation.

“On account of the variation in size and weight of pelts we think the simplest way io market lliese goods would be at a price per lh.’’ The second firm reported that of the 75 skins which they received, 16 per cent, were unsuitable except for lowgrade purposes, but that the remainder were of good quality, and they offered to receive a parcel of 1000 skins in order to carry out a large-scale commercial trial.