WAR ON FLIES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 129, 28 November 1923, Page 9

WAR ON FLIES

BRISBANE'S PROBLEM

TYPHOID INCREASING.

(PRO3C OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 22nd November.

The unusually hot weather in South Queensland is resulting in the fly and and mosquito pests making themselves more than commonly pronounced. Although a board which has been specially established in the metropolitan area to suppress these disease-breeders has devised various methods "to this end, including the free distribution of kerosene and other mosquito preventatives, the man-in-the-street is aware of nothing more acutely than the increased ferocity of these detestable little creatures. In his strictures on the board, he does not pause to consider what the condition* would be in this exceptional season were there no board. He merely contents himself with grumbling about the apparent ineffectiveness of the measures taken. The board has received reports from its officers regarding additional measures that might be taken, and these include the payment of a bonus of a shilling per pound for dead flies, on the same principle as payment is made for dingo scalps and other noxious animals. Members .of the board foresaw many difficulties in the way of such a plan. Who was to check the weight of the bags of flies, and who was to determine the genuineness of the contents of the bags by examining the contents? The subject ha_ s afforded excellent material for the wits of the city in the Press and elsewhere. One pictures the Mayor working overtime counting millions of flies entrapped by money-making youngsters and sorting out dried tealeaves which have been industriously intermixed as weight-makers. Another hopes that the board will put its large fly stocks to economic use by discovering that they make a peculiarly nutritive manure, which may be instrumental in converting the annual losses on the State; farms into the big profits that the harassed taxpayers were led to expect. However, the suggestion to pay on dead flies is still under consideration. The facts undoubtedly show the necessity for drastic action. Apart from the discomforts of hordes of flies and mosquitos, the increase in certain types cf disease, particularly typhoid, is causing anxiety. Brisbane is still without a sewerage system, and it is considered that this, together with the prevalence of flies, is responsible.