OPOSSUM SKINS

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6544, 15 November 1924, Page 7

OPOSSUM SKINS

REDUCTION IN ROYALTIES ASKED FOR 1 With a view to securing legislation this season, if necessary, Mr T. M. Wilford asked an urgent question in the House last Friday relating to the royalties on opossum skins. He reminded the Minister of Internal Affairs that the royalties were becoming a big thing with trappers. The annual license fee was £2 10s, and the average price of skins during the last four years was 6s 9d, which, after deducting the shilling royalty, left the price received by the trapper at 5s 9d. In 1923 in the Wellington district there were 42,000 opossums trapped, 7000 of which came from Whiteman’s Valley. In one camp alone trappers had secured 2763, all of which were subject to the shilling royalty. The royalties had been fixed when skins were 10s and 11s, and while the Forestry Department obtained half the amount of the royalty, it had to be remembered that 70 per cent, of the skins came from private and not Government hands. Because of the tremendous toll on the skins by this levy he recommended that the royalty be cut in half.

The Hon. R. F. Bollard replied that it had not been brought to his knowledge before that the royalty was considered excessive, and he certainly had not been approached. He would be pleased to look into the matter.