A NEW INDUSTRY.

Waipa Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 1009, 21 October 1920, Page 6

A NEW INDUSTRY.

TRADING IN OPOSSUM SKINS.* LEGALISED. TRAPPERS' AND DEALERS' LICENSES. In moving the second reading of the Animals Protection Amendment Bill in the House, the Hon. G. J. Anderson .(Minister-of Internal Affairs) said that the purpose of the Bill was not to protect opossums, but to make their skins a marketable commodity. At present individuals could be granted permission to kill oppossums. but they could not legally sell the skins. There was, however, an illicit traffic in the skins, and when the traffic was put under license he hoped that the" sales would reach a value of hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum. The Bill proposed to license trappers and dealers. The question of a State royalty on skins was being considered, and he was of opinion that with skins at their present value a royalty might quite well be required. In connection with the licensing proposed by the Bill, acclimatisation societies would be called upon to do a great deal of work, and consequently they would get a provision prohibiting the holder of a license from entering upon private land for the purpose of taking or killing opossums. He hoped that the Bill would be the means of setting up a very profitable business. Mr A. S. Malcolm (Clutha) said that the forests in the Catlins district were fast disappearing before the activities of sawmillers. It was advisable that advantage should be taken of the existence of the opossums before they were wiped out through the cutting down of the forests.

The second reading was carried, and the Bill was put through Committee and passed without amendment.