Seases, Insect Pests

N Be

Rried By Planes

rOW that air services are cross- I ing the Pacific in all direc tions between Asia, Australia I North America, it is vital to welfare that a strict watch be t upon them, as potential riers of pests,” said Dr. Mc lan, when recently in Sydney, is Economic Development Mem of the Research Council of the th Pacific Commission.

Fo show what can happen, I cite case of Canton Island. Hawaii ar interests maintain a research anisation, and the latter carried & survey recently on Canton nd. It showed that, since the ns-Pacific planes began stop ? at this isolated sandbank ler the equator, the number of 3ies of insects on the island has bled.” r. McMillan said that only the lost care could prevent the rapid ?ad of pests. Pandanus brought n Papua or the Solomons for making of coarse fabrics carried e insects. The Rhinoceros beetle everywhere, and could easily carried. The Pacific areas were iparatively free of the terrible ;-and-mouth disease, but it was imon in Europe and America, it could be carried in carcase it. That applied to other animal lases. rhere is much talk, but no on,” said the doctor. “Yet the enses of preventive measures

are as nothing compared with the cost of fighting the plague, once it is introduced. Co-ordinated action throughout the Pacific is urgently needed.”

Mr. John H. North, a Medical De partment officer on leave from Lae, New Guinea, recently gave the Murwillumbah Rotary Club, NSW, an interesting account of the ex periences of the medical officials who went to the rescue of the people injured in the Lamington eruption.