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Here Is Money

[?]Nd Grief In

[?]etting Into the Croc. Business

[7'HERJEVER men congregate to i dream aloud their schemes for iking easy money in New Guinea, s talk is sure to turn to crocodiles.

I one needs is a boat, a torch

lipped rifle, and bingo—there’s

3,000 in a couple of months! Or so y say! it the present moment there are eral Incipient crocodile expedi ns forming in the back-waters of iney harbour.

Vhat is not generally known, is it some well-equipped and ap •ently highly successful crocodile ►editions to New Guinea waters re lost hundreds, and even thous is, of pounds through ignorance the processing and marketing ects. ’here is a keen and rich market croc hides, but because they are valuable the buyers are naturally hly critical of the condition of produce. A man who is well sed in the handling of say, deer buffalo hides, needs to learn an irely new technique and be much •e painstaking with croc hides, I, what is equally important, he 5t make certain that the trials and facilities will be on id before he departs from civili on. or example, the only practical ' to ship croc hides is in solid, ded wooden cases, or in wooden cs —emphatically not in metal ;ainers and emphatically not in b alone. d naturally these containers will e to be taken to the out-back ting location, in. shocks or ;rwise. Also required there on spot will be a solid, flat-concrete tvooden-processing floor, and a -ventilated, rain-proof, curing se that is not too hot and not too draughty. To reduce heat, if iron roofed, the roof have to be covered with mat , sacking, or vegetation. A lot acking will be required in pack the hides, for protective reasons, a very large quantity of fine i the coarse cattle-hide type) for curing. These are just ? of the props that will be re ed before there is any possibility bitting the jack-pot that the bay papers talk so freely about, here holes and slight scratches ilemishes may not seriously re the value of other hides, they J a considerable effect on croc s. Presumably every croc hunter vs that a bullet hole through part of the hide will cut its e greatly or even render it eless—but fewer know that

dragging the dead croc up some stony river bank or across a snag may do just as much damage with? out actually holing the hide.

Not long ago, one successful hunter came south to Sydney with a large consignment of good hides He had diligently complied with ali the processing requirements. The hides had been carefully packed in stout cases and there was nothing left to do but hand over to the boss?

m «^fcost T ? h i

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had curled inwards to pierce a hide holes tte value™ Similarly, a croc left lying in the

snn mav it musif h - d £/* lue halved, to nio^ aight f L om water i S thi n oJSSi,,? Ten hours killing and skinnW of time tn 18 a waste auirkhf nr™lLT re Hl an can be skinnino- v, Th £ n ’ after back h ?nfo S n!~ ld not be swamn hn? K the ri^ or the clean wasb *; d . on nroceed ““SiSSSSJSf- Cur A ng 5 Not muX^nppriPri^vLf' if tbe !aifc propSrtio°n g ' and US6d in the c <£ re <*

Generally speaking, salt water

crocs are the most valuable. The hides of the older and larger fresh water crocs are usually affected with buttons” or nodules on the choice belly skins. These may not be leasfly seen, but they can be felt, (and they greatly reduce the value.

I They are possibly caused by gravel f penetrating the skin, and are not I usually present in crocs of less than [ 7 ft long.

A strict procedure for skinning [and processing is laid out; any Prospective hunter must make him i self thoroughly familiar with it At least one Sydney firm dealing in ■ hides issues a typed brochure on the subject. The central back portion is, ol course, valueless, and incisions are made round this in a specified manner. Value is based on blemishes, shape, quality of curing and, finally, size. Payment is bv measurement across from “armpit” to ‘ armpit”—the widest part of the hide disregarding the leg portions.

The measurement is made with the skin unstretched but laid out per fectly flat. If the hide is insuf ficiently cured it will continue to shrink and this measurement may be substantially less in Sydney than it was in New Guinea or the Solomons.

As an indication of value, in November Prime quality hides, 18 inches and over, were worth 6/9d per inch, delivered and measured in store, Sydney. Hides 12-18 inches,

6/6d per inch; 10-12 inches, 3/6d per inch. Below 10 inches nn market. Above 29 inches the value is reduced to two-thirds. Flawless fresh water hides are quoted by fi rms at 1/- per inch below the above values, which, we em phasise, are for flawless Prime hides.

Two Sydney firms keenly in terested in the crocodile hide market are Inter-Continental Ex ports Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 5295 (corner of Erskine and Kent Streets), and Johnson & Sons Ptv Ltd., 203 Castlereagh Street-JPS J M r. T J. Dunleavy, editor of Western Samoa’s only newspaper, for the last three years, left Apia with his wife and family in No vember for 3 months vacation in New Zealand. In his absence, free lance writer Jack Thornton, of New Zealand is relieving editor.