RABBIT FARMING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4038, 7 January 1930, Page 1

RABBIT FARMING.

MAKING SOME PROGRESS IN THE DOMINION.

The ill’s! annual report of Fur Farms Limited, mi Auckland venture, is to timid, and from it we ga - flier that Hie company is making’ some progress. This company goes in for breeding Angora and Chinchilla rabbits, and a good many people appear to he interested in it. The following' extract from the. report is not without general interest. The directors feel that a note of warning should be sounded in view of the unaccountable attitude of the Government. Instead of fostering this new industry with its boundless possibilities, the Government has, without question, discouraged its advancement. This attitude appears to be based on the momentary decline in the market for 'fur. Suc-.h declines are seasonal. The present fall in the fur market does not compare in its serious effects with the alarming drop in Merino wool. It is considered worth recording that the act ing'-Pi'ime (Minister saw lit to issue a statement, which was broadcast throughout the Dominion to the effect 'that Chinchilla skins had fallen as low as 1/- up to (>/- fora few of the very best, and added the

sut prising statement that C-hiii-,-hilla was no longer fashionable. The information is assumed to have come from. London, while under the very nose of the Minister hi Wellington, a parcel of New Zea ■ land-grown Chinchilla pelts of inferior quality sold at public auction at 5/6 each. The pelt market is down, hut rabbits will pay at very much lqwer bates than are at present offered. The point which the directors desire to stress is that there is undoubtedly a big Held for the profitable development of the rabbit in New Zealand, but that a young industrv is more, likely to lie < rippled by unwarrantable or interested obstruction than is one of older establishment. The immediate’ effect has been a falling off in the stud business, so that more rapid development becomes necessary mi the pelt and meat side. For this purpose moire capital will be required.