OPOSSUMS IN AUSTRALIA

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1931, Page 9

OPOSSUMS IN AUSTRALIA

CAMPAIGN OF SYMPATHY.

PARTIAL PROTECTION LIKELY. Citizens of finer sensibilities in New South Wales are rejoicing that their campaign of protest on behalf of the opossum has been partly successful. The opossum will not be entirely protected from the trapper and the poisoner, but many of his family will be spared. The Chief Secretary has so far relented that he lias limited the slaughter. It is possible that he may yet forbid it. The present intention is that the trapping and the shooting of opossums shall be permitted only in certain districts, and that any member of Parliament Who asks that his district, or portion of his district, shall be declared a sanctuary shall have his wishes met. The unemployed are supposed to be the only persons who will benefit, but persons who are interested in the protection of native fauna say that many others will share.

Several members of the Legislative Council have been directing attention to the ravages of the poisoners. The poisoners, it is stated, set baits for opossums, and these baits destroy other animals, including farm stock. A rose nurseryman expressed sympathy with the opossums, but he stated casually that he had in one week trapped 17 with an apple in a cage. “They come here,” he said, “and eat off the rosebuds.”