Another Japanese Pest
pp. 69-70 · Read in the full issue
GIANT snails, now threatening the well-being of New Guinea native gar dens, were not the only pest released in the Pacific Islands by the Jap invaders in 1942-45. The following extract from a District Officer’s report was published recently by the “North Borneo News”: “In addition to the fern and lalang the Dayaks now have to compete with a new grass weed, which grows in most prolific fashion on the worst soil and has a peculiar odour. This is known to them as ‘aeroplane grass,’ because, as it never made its appearance until the Japanese arrived with their aeroplanes, the Dyaks are convinced that the Japanese broad cast it from the skies.”
Mr. K. A. Saxby, who was born in Fiji and lived in that Colony until 1939. expects to leave Sydney this month for Manus, New Guinea, where he will join the plantation staff of Messrs. Edgell and Whiteley.
Mr. Philip MacFarlane, BA, of Tas mania, proceeded to Thursday Island (Torres Straits) in September to take up his new work as a teacher, under the Anglican Mission, on Moa Island. He is a son of the Rev. W. F. MacFarlane, who was a missionary in the Torres Strait Islands for many years. The young man served in the war years as a navigator in the RAAF.