FLIES IN AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8766, 30 April 1890, Page 3

FLIES IN AUSTRALIA.

A wfIiTER in the Canterbury Press thus describes his experience with Australian flies :—": — " Oh, those flies ! When you got to Bathurst you first realise what a torment the domestic fly can become. He gets into the corner of your eyes, up your nostrils, into your ears. He visits your cheek and etings it; he settles on your back by the hundred, and goes out walking or driving with you. He " blows" jour breakfast steak, he befouls your tea, he makes life altogether unpleasant — unhearable. But, if you complain, the Bathurst man says, " Call those flies ! You should go to Dubbo to feel flies," If in search of the phenomena of natural history you go to Dubbo, the red dust joins the fly in making you miserable, but should you repine the Dubbo resident exclaims, "Pooh! that's nothing; wait till you get to Brewarrina." At Brewarrina the people refer you to Bourke for the patent self-acting, grip-action, anncapnic, chokebore fly, in his pristine purity and activity. At Bourke, however, the natives are discouraged, and bear your growls with the resignation of despair. Some one more patriotic than the rest may hint that the flies and dust are worse at Cobar or Louth ; but he does not press the point. Bathurst has flies by the thousand, Dubbo by tens of thousands. Brewarrina by the million ; but Bourke boasts, or rather bewails, the proud pre-eminence of having them by the myriad. It is impossible to convey a joint of meat from the kitchen to the dining-room without the gravy being blackened with flies ; the uncovered cup of tea becomes the ocean grave of as many as will fit , the cream jug, if let exposed, is in a second dotted with defunct and moribnnd diptera, resembling truffles in pate de foie gras. The rest of the army buzz around one's face, swarm up the gasaliers, darken the table cloth, and make things lively in general. Their bite, too, is vicious, and they " blow " the human optic literally in the twinkling of an eye. This " blowing " is peculiar. A fly settles on you cheek, creeps up to the corner of the lower eyelid, near the temple or nose, gives a sting, and hops oft' just as you feel it. Immediately the flesh of the lid puffs out, and that eye is shut aud practically useless for a day or more. Sometimes the effects are ! lasting, and " blight " caused by fly bites, is common, chiefly in very young children and not among adults. A regular item of yearly expenditure incurred by fathers of families who can afford it is the transfer of wife and children for the summer months to the cooler regions of Sydney or the Blue Mountains. Those who can't afford it have to pay pretty dearly for eye lotion."