Black possum fur industry?
A decision to liberate black opossums as a commercial investment at Taumarunui and the Waitakere Ranges has been arrived at by the Auckland Acclimatisation Society. Authority has been given for black opossums to be trapped by a ranger at Lake Waikaremoana, and it was decided to liberate the first lot on the watershed between the Waikato and Wanganui rivers, the remainder to be placed on the Waitakeres. The president, Mr H.H. Ostley, stated that a score of the animals had been liberated some years ago on the Coromandel Peninsula, and their fur should be valuable by now.
— ODT, 23.5.1922