DESTRUCTION OF MOSQUITOES, ETC. 667 



Zealand, together with South Africa and Canada, should ask for 

 separate ofhcial representation. It has ahvays appeared to me as 

 out of all proportion to the maritime interests at stake that 

 countries like Greece, with a comparatively small tonnage as to 

 ships, should have the same number of delegates as Great Britain 

 and the Overseas Dominions. The gi'eat shipping interests of the 

 Oversea Dominions, and the special requirements as to quarantine, 

 seem to justify their having some direct say in the formulation of 

 what are now almost universal quarantine stipulations. 



One point worth discussing would be that means be taken to 

 prevent the introduction of disease-carrying mosquitoes from 

 centres where malaria, yellow fever and other diseases are endemic. 

 The future opening of the Panama Canal need not necessarily 

 increase the danger of yellow fever reaching Australia, as it has 

 recently been shown that in certain places where Stegomjda calopus 

 is present and yellow fever has actually been introduced, it has not 

 spread, but it certainly justifies attention being given to such 

 problems as mosquito extermination. 



It will be necessary, by teaching hygiene in schools and 

 creating a better appreciation of sanitary measui'es in those who 

 will be our future householders, to arouse a better public sanitary 

 conscience before any regulation such as that enforced in some 

 American centres will be possible of adoption and application 

 in any Australian cornmunity, unless the outbreak of an epidemic 

 should cause an awakening to immediate action. 



Thus the City Council of Laredo, Texas, in April, 1904, was 

 forced to adopt the following, among other resolutions, before the 

 crusade for the extermination of mosquitoes and yellow fever was 

 successful : — " That all wells, cisterns, tanks, reservoirs, barrels, 

 tubs, vats, pools, lakes, ponds, puddles, and other water containers 

 holding and containing water therein, within the corporated limits 

 of the City of Laredo, other than those in which the water therein 

 contained is either coated and kept coated with oil or such water 

 container screened in such manner as to prevent mosquitoes from 

 getting therein or escaping therefrom is hereby declared a public 

 nuisance." 



Until, however, people realise that to make the tropical parts 

 of Australia habitable with comfort for a white population, the 

 people themselves must appreciate and apply the teachings of 

 tropical hygiene, not only in dress, diet, clothing, temperance, and 

 habitation, but also in protecting themselves against preventable 

 disease and discomfort, there will be little temptation other than 

 that which induces the more adventiirous in search of fortune in 

 fresh fields, to make a permanent home in some of the most pro- 

 ductive parts of the northern part of the continent of Australia. 



The experience of Khartoum, where even typhoid fever has 

 been reduced to 10 cases per 50,000 of population, abundantly 

 proves what can be accomplished by good sanitary supervision 

 and organisation among a native population, disciplined to obedi- 

 ence by an efficient central and local government following the 



