ERADICATION OF HYDATIDS CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22796, 23 August 1939, Page 16

ERADICATION OF HYDATIDS CAMPAIGN

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS.' Sir, —One of your correspondents suggests that Government appointees should undertake the dosing of dogs to rid them of worm trouble. It is some months since I advocated this plan. The Government collected £33,704 in taxes for dog licences in 1937 Cl have no later figures than this). Surely some of this money could be used to rid New Zealand of the hydatid menace! We all know that the main trouble is caused by the farm dogs, and the owners of these dogs pay a considerably less tax than do the town owners, 2s 6d for a farm dog, as against 10s for a town dog. Until there is legislation dealing with the matter, the salient points to remember, in connexion with tapeworms, are:—l. The thorough cooking of all flesh food, including fish, other than sound, fresh beef, before giving it to a dog. 2. The extermination of rats; they are the carriers of the cystic form of at least one species of worm. 3. The disinfection of a dog and its surroundings of fleas and lice, as these vermin are "the intermediate host of tire commonest tapeworm in the dog. 4, fc The undelayed removal and burning of all faeces, whether suspected of being contaminated or not. 5. The prevention of the consumption of garbage in the streets or elsewhere. 6. The exclusion of dogs from slaughterhouses or from butchers’ waste buckets. 7. The regular use of a vermifuge to expel the worms from the dog. —Yours, etc., A. M. SPENCE-CLARK. Sumner, August 21, 1939. WORDS OF A POEM WANTED *0 THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS Sir, —I wonder if one of your readers could furnish me with" the words of. or tell me where I could procure, the poem “Jessie of Lucknow,” composed about 70 years ago in connexion with the historic siege and defence of that place in the Indian Mutiny.—Yours, etc INQUIRER. [The poem cannot be printed, but we ■ shall be glad to send it on to the correspondent.—Ed., "The Press.”]