IN QUEST OF "PELTS.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12757, 29 September 1919, Page 10

IN QUEST OF " PELTS.”

V> onderful indeed is the importance which that harmies?, yet not -wholly insignificant., little creature the rabbit has now liegun to assume, writes " Country Bumpkin ” iu the “Otago Daily Time?.’* But a few weeks ago a of mine purchased a rifle, and. fnilr armed. ventured out amongst the ranges in finest of *' pells- ’ T have since questioned him as to In’s earn mgs. and so surprising was the statement made by him that I jokingly asked, if he was not afraid ot: being burden cl wit hj the, i iimmc tajs,_ But by giving the. matter serious consideration t find that, wore it possible lor pells to remain at their present prices throughout the summer months, quite a number of persons—in fact, nil those who took up rahb.itcatehing for a living—would be placed ■ ■.thin easy reach of the income tax collector. One need hardly be a mathematician to figure out such a state of affairs as - «*vn« quite reasonably within the range of possibility, for my friend with the rifle informed me chat ho was earn- * i.ttg anything from JLT2 to £l6 per week.^ and still keeping the Sabbath. I’honomeual, 1 admit, hut an illuminating illustration of what 1939 is doing lor some people. The beauty of the occupation-—I can hardly term it calling, although in some cases it has almost amounted to that— lies in. its great freedom from responsibility of any kind. It is a care-free existence, especially for the single man—married men must of necessity be excludedand more healthy work one could not desire to take up. In my young days rabbit shooting was considered a sport, hut- the element of sport in connection with the flagging of rabbits has now faded into obscurity. A very average shot has not the least difficulty in shooting twenty rabbits in a single day and thereby securing twenty skins. As even a very ordinary skin is now vaiucd at 12d. it will he seen that the very average shot- can earn £1 per day, which is not a wage to poke fun at. A skin has, in fact, become so valuable that the pelt hunter is little concerned about the carcase. As a. rule he throws the rabbit away, and hundreds of good carcases fie strewn about till they arc eaten up by hawks. It -seems a pity to waste wholesome food sn extravagantly, but thou again such wane has been partly aggravated by our railway restrictionsThat in itself is, however, insufficient excuse for such criminal waste; and while meat is sold at such a price as now prevails lor it, here lies a matter worth inquiring into. A\ hiio not wishing to experiment on the public with poisoned food, T fail to see why those rabbits which arc shot (many through the should lie rotting in the snn while townspeople pay '• over the neck ’’ for meat. This waste*can. and should, be stopped next season. The loss is evidently incurred through ! skins rising to prices wfnch not many | vears ago would have been thought to j be fabulous. Shooting, however, is only one of the methods by which pelt hunters ply their lucrative calling. Dogs, traps and ferrets play- an all-important partin the business, and weekly retupns compare not unfavourably in some case&with the gold rushes of the early eighties. Did any of the pioneer gold miners earn £8 10s in one day? While such soaring prices arc in evidence interested persons may say: Jt sounds like profiteering,” but when working men take advantage of the abnormally high wages which can lie earned while pelt hunting, it- is quite unreasonable to assume that thev arc accumulating profit at the expense of others less fortunate in their choice of occupation!. .Just exactly why the common or garden rabbit should so suddenly spring into protninenco is rather mystifying, unless it he that some inventive genius has suddenlydiscovered that “ electric seal” m proving an excellent substitute, and thereby replacing the genuine and more fashionably expensive furs* and coats for which most women hare a weakness. That, of course, is only a* guess—T don’t profess to know much about the use to which the rabbit may lie put in manufacturing processes. An experienced farmer told men, few days ago that he was just a little afraid of present prices causing a tendency towards the ec farming ” of rabbits. True that a rabbit this year would have netted a small fortune fethc rabbit farmer, but the. animal, if allowed to breed unmolested for fire successive years, would min (he farming community right (hronghout tb<length and breadth of flic Tand. An .American, I believe, has proved that in five years the rabbit would exterminate itself. _ Is any fanner game to trv the experiment ? To the uninitiated 1 would say. “Don’t throw up your trade to rush feverishly into the country’ to go pelt hunting; you would find to your dismay that one, and only one, place was open for you to shoot on—namely, the roadside.” Tn ihose davs. however, when Labour is restive, it is pleasing to note that some, even though the relative percentage to the population be small, are earning wages high above the average. Though this docs not necessarily counterbalance present industrial unrest in any way, it, shows that_ the small section of our community as the “pelt- hunters,” unaided hv unionism or any other kind of “ ism,” are in likelihood of some day blossoming forth as capitalists. It recur? that at last the 10 rabbi ter ” has come into his own. AVho knows?