THE RAW LEATHER TRADE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1930, Page 16

THE RAW LEATHER TRADE

SURPLUS HIDES AND SKINS SURVEY OF EMPIRE PRODUCTS. 1 NECESSITY FOR BETTER QUALITY The. British Empire has a surplus of hides and skins, the raw material of leather, over the needs of its own tanning industries in every type of skin except heavy cattle hide, says the 16th report of tne Imperial Economic Committee. The leather industry of the United Kingdom takes £21,000,000 worth of raw material annually, of which about, £6,000,000 worth is obtained from cattle and sheep slaughtered in the country. Of. the total imports, about 90 per cent, of the sheepskins, 70. per cent, of the goat skins, and 60 per cent, of the hides are of Empire origin. . India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Irish Free State, South Africa and tropical Africa, all send substantial quantities of hides and skins to the United Kingdom. Of the heavy hides, more than one-half of the imports from Empire sources come from the Irish Free State. In the case of sheepskins the United Kingdom and the three'Southern Dominions are, taken together, exporters to the tune of about 39,000,000 skins, most of which go to foreign countries. HEAVY WASTAGE. Any future increase in production, the report, states, must depend upon the expansion of other industries such as dairying and meat and wool production. The problem facing the hides and skins industry is one of improving the quality of already available supplies. Wastage of potentially good material is all too common in every producing country. The warble fly, for instance, greatly reduces the value of hides produced in the United Kingdom, Canada and India. The grubs, which hatch from eggs laid by the fly on the cattle, make large holes in the hide, >and this is all the more Aerious • because they attack the animal’s back, which is the most valuable part of the hide. WARBLES AND TICKS. A determined effort to reduce the damage done by warbles in the United Kingdom is being made under the auspices of the Leathersellers’ Company, assisted .by the Empire Marketing Board. They are conducting a campaign in several parts of the to persuade farmers to use ■ a wash which repulses the fly when it is searching for a suitable spot on the ox or cow to lay its eggs. In Australia, states the report, the cattle tick takes the place of the warble, and does even greater damage. In Queensland alone ticks do £lOO,OOO worth of damage to hides, and the loss, direct and indirect, to the cattle industry. of that State is about ten times this sum. The Commonwealth Government is engaged on active measures to bring the tick evil under control, though“dipping” is the only practical' remedy so far discovered. ' In South Africa, the Skin'and Hide Advisory Board, representing farmers, butchers, tanners, shippers and brokers, has been appointed to advise on the grading up of hides and skins, and a substantial improvement has already been noted by tanners. BAD BRANDING. Another cause of damage is branding. This is often inevitable, but much could be done by restricting, branding to one part of the animal only, and by persuading ranchers to brand on’some less valuable part of the hide, such as the cheek or shoulder, instead of on the best parts, such as the hip. The most frequent source of trouble is iinperfect preparation of the hides at the time of. slaughter. The best remedy for this, when possible, is the concentration of slaughtering lit big abattoirs instead of scattered and inexpert slaughtering. In many cases, however, this is a counsel of perfection; but inspectors may pro.ve useful in improving the preparation Sf/skins. This method is wiving good results in Nigeria, where a special branch o'f the veterinary service has been established to inspect and grade skins. Cattle, sheep and goats are, of course, the predominant types of animal whose skins are used for leather. There is also a trade in skins of horses, buffaloes, pigs, dogs, kangaroos, whales, sharks, lizards, snakes, crocodiles- and other creatures ’