N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 89 



shown that with an assessed valuation of $125,000,000 the 

 maximum expense when limited to three-eights of a mill per 

 dollar of valuation could not exceed $48,000 per year. They 

 have been shown that the cost to the farmer cannot exceed 

 $1.87 on $5,000 valuation. They have been shown that the 

 expenses of the county are not affected by the summer residents, 

 that is, they are just as much whether one or one thousand sum- 

 mer residents come to that county. However, the summer 

 resident pays a large part of the taxes, and the elimination of 

 the mosquitoes will improve and enhance the value of his prop- 

 erty. Many more people from the cities will come to the sea- 

 shore resorts and build homes if the pest is gotten rid of. There- 

 fore, it is easy to see that the permanent voting population of a 

 county like Suffolk will actually profit by the elimination of 

 mosquitoes, thus improving the attractiveness of their particular 

 section for the summer resident. 



Some years ago I remember reading a news article from a 

 New Jersey paper, to the effect that "wherever the drainage had 

 been completed and maintained, the thoughtful residents speak 

 of the great relief afforded, and as a direct result property values 

 between two certain points had increased nearly six million 

 dollars. In the residential section the increase ranged from 25 

 to 300 per cent. And further it had been figured out in that year 

 that there would be a direct return to the State of New Jersey 

 in taxes of over four million dollars upon an expenditure of 

 $300,000 of the State's money." 



So I am sure I am right, and acting in the interest of the rail- 

 road company I represent, when I work for the enactment of the 

 County Commission Mandatory Law in Suffolk County. 



I find that in spite of the many years that anti-mosquito work 

 has been carried on in Kings and Queens and Nassau and also 

 in Suffolk (to say nothing of the great work you have done in 

 New Jersey) there is still a feeling of skepticism in some quar- 

 ters. The native Long Islander has been scourged so long and 

 so unmercifully, that probably without the mosquito he would 

 not feel at home. The newcomers, however, are gradually con- 

 verting or crowding out the old . timers and their out-of-date 

 notions. 



I have gone so far as to sound a "Call to Arms" in Suffolk 

 County, based on the fact that Jersey was getting ahead of us, 

 and if we do not wake up, we will be held accountable for all 

 the mosquitoes that are seen east of the Delaware River. 



There is great competition and rivalry between the sea coasts 

 of New Jersey and Long Island. We boast of being the only 



