Queensland Cattle licks

Archive's-August 1944

Havoc among N. Cale

donian herds

AN epizootic tick, of which this coun try has hitherto been free, is playing havoc with New Caledonian cattle on both sides of the island.

The chief of the Veterinary Service attributes the outbreak to the waiving of quarantine restrictions “when the Japan ese were at our gates”.

He believes that, undoubtedly, the tick was introduced by horses imported from Queensland. It will be recalled that prior to Guadalcanal, a regiment of US cavalry, mostly Texans, were mounted with horses imported from Australia. Incidentally, one of the transports bringing horses here was sunk by enemy action, and several hun dred horses were lost. The US remount

depot was situated on the Ducos Peninsula, close to Noumea, and it was from this area that the tick outbreak began to spread among cattle. In a recent lengthy statement, the chief veterinarian discusses symptoms caused by tick bites, and ways and means of destroying the ticks, which do most damage during the hot season.

Hie Irrepressible Parers

FRESH laurels are coming the way of Damien Parer, who has been filming the recent fighting on Guam for Paramount

News. Until he resigned last year, he was ace cameraman for the Australian Depart ment of Information in the Middle East and New Guinea. A recent despatch from Guam by the Melbourne “Herald” war cor respondent, Denis Warner, says: “The Marines think of him as a sort of legendary figure the bullets cannot touch.

Four of their own corps’ cameramen have been killed in the fighting here, but none took the same risks as Parer to get what he calls “the best action pictures I have taken this war”.

“In the final fight for Orote airstrip, where Japanese resistance was easily the fiercest of the campaign, Parer preceded the infantry, following the tanks on foot.

He was not injured, but many infantrymen, sheltering in fox-holes behind him, were killed and wounded by machine-gun bul lets and mortars. Parer came back to press headquarters that night exhausted, but the happy possessor of remarkably close action pictures.” ■