THE OPOSSUM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1560, 2 October 1912, Page 4

THE OPOSSUM.

AGAINST ITS EXTERMINATION. Groat exception is being takon in Otago to the lifting of , tho protection on opossums, and the Otago Acclimatisation Society has taken up the matter. A polition. to the Prime Minister has also been drawn up, and signed by 17 representative, hide and skin merchants. It roads as follows:— "We, the undersigned hide and skin merchants and dealers, hereby respectfully request and -lirtje that the protection recently removed trom.opossums bv the Hon. Minister for Internal Affairs, be again reinstated throughout the Dominion where such is applied for, and particularly in so far as the district of Ota»o is concerned, and that for the future the Animals Protection Act,'l9oß, bo. amended to permit of opossums of all species be:n;j trapped as well as hunted or shef during the open season, and that regulations be gazetted annually permitting of an spen season for taking and killing opossums during the months of May, June, and July, with a provision that all skins taken must be sold within IK) days after the elese of the season as above, and anyone found to be in possession of opossums (exclusive of-'pets), or their skins in undressed conditions thereafter, and during the remaining closed period shall be deemed to have committed a breach cf the regulations, and he liabk , to the penalties stated in the regulations. "Our reasons for putting this application before you are:—(l) We are in a position from practical' experience to state that the acclimatisation cf opossums in this Dominion has just now reached a stage which places it in the rank of a profitable commercial industry to settlers anil others concerned. (2) We know from interviews with persons living in parts of this district where opossums arecstablishcd that if any damage is done to the few fruit trees here and there in gardens adjoining -the- bush the owners are more than compensated by the value of the skins they are able to sell, and that whilst they wish an. open season to be declared they have no desire that the. protection should be wholly removed. (3) Wβ feel sure that the. Minister for Internal Affairs has not been fully apprised of the value of the opossum as a commercial asset to this country, lior the conditions under which these animals live in. this district, where the /percentage of harm which could be done is infinitesimal, in comparison with the benefit to be gained by reasonable regulation and protection. (■!) The winter months are the best for taking opossums; as their fur is then in its prime, but if protection is not reinstated the animals will l:e trapped and killed throughout the whole year by persons who would take what they could get, and this course would soon exterminate the opossum altogether."