A MOSQUITO-PROOF TENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11655, 10 June 1912, Page 2

A MOSQUITO-PROOF TENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

(Chambers' Journal.)

In your issue, of June, 1910, there is an article on the danger and trouble caused bv mosquitoes in tropical arid sub-tropical regions. It may be worth while to mention an experience in New Zealand. The present writer was sent by the late Sir Donald M'Lean, Chief Native Land Purchase Commissioner, to survey the boundaries of a large block of land then (1859) being negotiated for with the Maori owners in the North Island. Mr M'Lean, as he then was, •was held in much esteem by the Maoris of New Zealand, so that they used to say, "First "Wikitoria (the Queen), then Maknrini (M'Lean)." He came from the island of Tiree, Scotland. This block of land, two hundred and fifty thousand acres in area, was then in its natural state save for the limited native clearings and cultivations along the banks of the three large rivers intersecting it. The "forest primeval" still stood over most of it. In the summer-time the mosquitoes were a terrible pest, and smoky fires at each end of our tents were kept up at night. Even in the day-time in the bush we had to wear calico gloves with holes for finger-ends, and a green gauze veil put over ,our caps and tucked in at the breast and back, 'and sew up the openings of the shirt-fronts and sleeves; green.' being the best color • to see through comfortably while using "the instruments or for the men cutting lines. We were glad to retreat at lunch-time to the river-margins and clearings for a short spell from the mosquitoes. At last we hit upon a mosquito-proof tent which gave perfect comfort at nights and on wet days. It had a calico floor sewn closely all round to the sides and ends. The open end wias abolished, and entrance given by a manhole with a calico pipe or tube sewn round it and extending some three feet in length. On our entering or leaving the tent through this tube the end was tied up. Ventilation was given by openings in each end of the tint near the ridge, covered with netting of sufficiently large mesh to admit air, but small enough to exclude mosquitoes. The calico floor excluded- all insects. In pitching the tent a layer of brushwood for bedding was first placed on the ground, and the tent-floor laid over this. On entering we gathered up the tube in the hand and put one leg through, the rest easily following. This proved a great success, and we could listen with pleasure to the mosquitoes humming outside. The tent described would be useful to explorers in many lands. The mosquitoes here did not seem to have any injurious effect save the worry they caused, and in some persons the swelling of the parts bitten; no malarial effect followed.

This block of land is now nearly all cleared and occupied as farms, forming several townships, and the mos-quito-pest has generally nearly cone owing to.the drainage of swampy land' 'and the substitution of English grasses fn-r the native bush and growths. Railways and roads run through the block; and in one old' native clearing of some five hundred acres, where at the camp in 1859 we had to keep walking about with our pannikins of tea in our hands at the evening meal, as sitting down was a torment of mosquitoes, there is now a town of eight thousand persons, and one hears little talk of mosquitoes there. In 1859 there were many settlements of Maoris along the * river-hanks, and several old stockaded nas with carved posts and figures. These have now ouite disappeared; and there are also few Maoris, who are not so healthy or so hanny as thev were fifty, years ago. In 1859 the Maoris supplied' several European traders living at the mouth of the Drincipal river with produce brought down in their canoes; dressed flax, wheat, potatoes, pigs, etc. This trade kent. two coasting-vessels em- ; ployed. This is now wholly ar matter of the past. Certainly the' a-dvance of settlement- has not irapi'ovedt -tiks ixto* I

dition of the aboriginal Maoris. They are a fine race, and the writer lived among them for two years on this sur*vey with perfect' safety and confidence on both sides.