THE SLAUGHTER OF OPPOSUMS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2766, 9 May 1916, Page 3

THE SLAUGHTER OF OPPOSUMS

OPPOSUMS

ARE THEY A PEST ?

I .'LEA FOR PROTECTION

Td le case for some measure of protection _ for opossums was put before tho Mu.-ister ot Internal' Affairs (the Hon. : i G. W Russell) yesterday by a. deputatio: a representing the Wellington Acclii aiatisation Society.' /Mr .W. H. Field," M.P.j spoko fiist uf, the value of opossums to; .the count' #. Tho skins, lie said, w.ero. worth f rom 10s. to £1 each, and from 1 one ! Jistrict in Otago 80,000 skins baa been taken. In a piece of bush which lie ' iiad preserved at some-expense, -iertain unauthorised persons had secured eighty skins a month. His own experience /na-s that opossums did hot take fruit, Vlui did 1101 damage fruit trees. Also, the rate of breeding was so slow, that 'ihey could never be a menace like iab- ■ bits. " The deputation asked that onos■eums should bo protected forthwith, 'except, in such fruit areas as iii'g'ht^bo ' '-determined by the Minister after consultation with the head of tho Orchards Division of the Department of Agriculture. ; In r this connection :he pointed (cut that in Tasmania, .the greatest; fruit '.Btato of the Commonwealth,' opossums were protected, and licenses to kill were granted only during that' part ■of the ,«year when the .skins were'of most value. •The 1 deputation asked for a like protection in New Zealand, where the lekins were even more valuable than in Tasmania. They also asked for some regulation-, of the method • of; killing. . At present' the practice of trappers, who were mostly: engaged in other' occiipa--1 tiohs, was to go, out .on. Sunday setting traps, and to go round the traps on-the .. following Sunday, taking the ' skins. 'Meantime the : animals, ' often with yoirng, had perished miserably of starvation. Opossums could be killed hu- ... nianely by shooting,. or by taking them in box traps, such as were prescribed by regulation in Tasmania. Mr. L. 0. H. Tripp, chairman of the ■ Acclimatisation Society, addressed himself generally to the' question of whether opossums were likely to prove a menace. He insisted that they did net multiply rapidly, and the large numbers of the animals to be found in some . districts were due to the, fact tlat'they" 'hrid btcn, liberated very many years.ago., jAlso they were* very .easy to kill.. So could they be destroyed that if .unautSiorised trapping and poisoning . .were permitted, opossums in New-' Zealand would soon be totally .extinct •Indeed, at present, and ever since'the . 'protection was taken ..off, opossums, had "been destroyed at an alarming, rate'by [trapping, and .poisoning. ". The Minister, .in reply, said he would give the 'matter careful consideration.. Ho would ascertain what the law was, what his powers were, and then lie -would consider liow : far lie ought. to • 'exercise those' pp-^rs'in giving effect to -wliat the deputation asked., - He ex-; ' "pressed some doubt as to tlio danger of opossums becoming a menace'' to the agricultural and pastoral, industries. ', -He would -make'li.o' promises' as to what ' ho would do, but if he 'were, satisfied that it. could . be ; done without 1 , injury to these important interests,' lie would do his best to stop the inhumane and promiscuous destruction 'of. opossums. - ..