Here is a friendly tip for Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on how to quickly revive the economy after the lockdown : Turn your country into a massive factory churning out highly desirable possum fur covered recliners, armchairs and lounges .
This invaluable piece of economic advice is based on the above circa 1890 cabinet photograph taken in the New Swiss Studios, 101 Rundle Street , Adelaide . You will notice that part of the furniture includes what is obviously a trendy possum covered armchair .
As colonial New Zealand became infested with possums due to a large extent by the extensive collecting habit of Governor Sir George Grey , the Kiwis are now up to their armpits with the pests . A former governor of South Australia , Sir George , in his second term of office running NZ , in 1862 bought Kawau Island , near Auckland , as a retreat, and turned an old copper mine manager's house into a mansion. Then he enthusiastically imported Australian wallabies and possums , plants from far and wide , mineral specimens. Kawau began to resemble Jurrasic Park
Kiwi forests , native animals and agriculture suffered as a result of the imported vermin . Sir George , a British soldier , explorer , colonial administrator , writer and politician , was not keen on the suggestion that NZ become part of a proposed Australasian federation .
He firmly believed Australia could only be developed using coloured labour. New Zealand he wanted kept for development by people from the "Mother Country". On a trip to Australia , where he forcefully espoused his views , he was regarded by some as senile .
While running South Australia , in a kind of Donald Trump power mad and controversial fashion , he kept a close watch on expenditure and refused payment of eight pence to a boy for sharpening a lot of pencils ; a bureaucrat was reprimanded for using mustard at public expense. The record shows that late in life he returned to the bossom of the Mother Country, but not that of his wife, as they did not get on well.
With all that raw material running about in NZ today , those smart Kiwis could quickly corner the massive possum furniture market . This blog has a few possums thumping about on its roof at night and we would be only too happy to include them in a food parcel to be delivered C.O.D. to PM Ardern , at the Beehive , Wellington . (This furry yarn dedicated to the memory of "Maori Barry ", the scallywag who ran the sex shop counter at the front of Sydney's Kings Cross Whisper and wrestled with ace reporter "Flasher " Jim Oram in the public bar at the nearby pub, at least 40 years ago .)
