MONEY IN RABBITS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5030, 22 September 1926, Page 1

MONEY IN RABBITS.

HALF A MILLION A YEAH.

AN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

“The rabbit is not altogether a nuisance and the unproductive creature that people are made to believe, says a writer in the Dunedin Stan. The farmers curse the rabbits which have infested his country because they lower the productivity of the land. A great deal is said about the way New Zealand money goes to America, and how few dollars come to this country. The rabbit is. the biggest winner of money rrom the Americans, for the Dominion, as the United Statesbuys most of the skins, and, after all, the rabbit is not such M unprofitable creature. Southland has unkind recollections of the year when the rabbit was first introduced into: that province, the first in the colony, for the animal overran the countryside, but now about 4000 or 5000 men are employed in the whiter trapping rabbits and sorting the skins in the stores. Dunedin is the only market in New Zealand for the sale of rabbitskins. Fortnightly sales are held, and at the June, the July, and the August sales 1,156,8051 b of skins were sold. Allowing at the very low 1 estimate 6s 8d as the average price per poiund, the; value of the skins sold was £384,60'0, ond with the quantities sold during May and the sales to be made. this, month a; conservative estimate ot the value ■oif rabbitskins produced in New Zealand for this winter would be about. £500,000. Since June one firm alone has. sold 509,8611 b of skins and seven other firms have held sales. From all over New Zealand come skins for the Dunedin market, but the- better grade skins come from the high country of Central Otago,'Hakataramea, and Canterbury.

Rabbiting is a lucrative business for men who have seasonal occupation's.. While waiting for the harvesting or shearing to start, these men camp out in the open in gangs, and the reports show that some parties make from £soo' to £6OO peir man for the scasoh. Owing to the extremely mild weather there have been a decided shortage of the best grades of skins. AH the super grades of winter bucks have been taken at extreme prices on American account, the skins being utilised in the making of coats.

Though America has been taking ajl grades of bucks, doe skins have not had the same attention from the States, and have been .shipped mostly to London and Continental markets'. The lower grades of skins are msed by hatters in the manufacture of fur felt hats,.