MANY USES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 March 1940, Page 9

MANY USES

FISH SKIN FOR SALE. Everyone knows that the skins of animals are used in a great' many ways, but possibly few realise that the skins of certain fishes are likewise of use to mankind. Leather is made from shark and ray skin,, and the curing of this fishy leather provides employment for many people. Then, again, the crude skin of the dogfish is utilised by carpenters and cabinetmakers in order to smooth down and polish wood, while the material called shagreen, which is used for covering small boxes and for other ornamental work, is actually the care-fully-prepared and dyed skins of fishes. Experiments are also being made with the skins of cod, bream, sole, etc., but the leather obtained is not nearly so good as that taken from the shark. Perhaps the strangest use for the skin of fish is made by the natives of the South Sea Islands who dry the spiny skins of the globe-fisH, or porcupine fish, and turn the minto protective head-coverings. Should you ever visit Japan, you would find another odd use to which fish skins have been put. It is quite f common practice there to make lanterns out of the blown-up and dried skins of puffers. The back of the skin the fish, so that when it is suspended is cut out and a candle placed inside by a wire it makes a very useful lamp, the light shining through the stretched skin as it would through a piece of oiled paper. Lastly, the silvery scales of the bleak are scraped so as to obtain a pigment which is used for coating the inside of hollow glass beads. The beads are fhen filled with wax to make realistic pearls. This odd industry was founded in France in the middle of the 17th century and still flourishes. All of which goes to show that fish skin is by no means wasted and. in future, may possibly be put to even more use than it is today.