Tonga’S Vigorous
p. 63 · Read in the full issue
Campaign
Against Beetle
SERIOUS damage to the coconut plantations on the island of Vavau, in the Tongan group, is threatened by a rhinoceros beetle in festation, and the local authorities are fighting an intensive battle to elimin ate the pest.
Mr. L. J. Dumbleton, (Plant and Animal Quarantine Officer to the South Pacific Commission) following
a visit to Tonga, said that discovery of the pest last February brought prompt action by the Tongan Gov ernment. Vavau was brought under regulations gazetted in 1922 to deal with a similar infestation on Keppel Island, which was success fully eradicated in 1929. Authorities are cleaning up breeding places, con trolling shipping movements, and conducting rigid inspections.
He thought the promptness of action, and the organisation and vigour of the campaign, made com plete eradication on Vavau Island a
practical possibility. The infested area was relatively small (one tenth of the island) and topograhically favourable for containment of the beetle.
Entomologists of the six member nations of the South Pacific Com mission are intensifying their efforts to discover more effective methods of control of this pest.