32 
steamers, &c.,” contains a list that “ comprises the number of plants, trees, &, 
(and disposition made of same) inspected,” and from this it may be learnt that 
232 ships arrived at the State with this class of merchandise aboard, each ag q 
rule conveying but small parcels thereof. In the case of these vessels, on ll9 
occasions the plants, &c., that they contained were found to be “clean, 
whereas those carried in the remaining 113 had to be wholly or in part 
destroyed by reason of the presence of injurious insects upon them, or in tho{e 
cases in which they were admitted—which was quite exceptional—had to he 
disinfected by dipping, fumigation, or other process. Amongst those consigh- 
ments were two parcels of Australian appies, one comprising 326 boxes that 
was admitted after the fruit in question had been suitably fumigated, and the 
other 100 boxes that were sent back owing to default of the owner to submit 
them to this process. The plants brought in the abovementioned 118 vessels 
harboured no less than Jorty-three different kinds of destructive insecty, 
“Should they (the report states) become established in our State, no one can 
foretell the misfortune that would be sure to follow.” In Western Australia, 
again, similar events have transpired in the course of the administration of the 
“ Destructive Insects’ and Substances Act.” 
The precise vehicles for the introduction of insect pests are both numeroys 
and varied. Living plants are noteworthy in this connection, and not on 
since they yield congenial conditions for the continuous subsistence and 
growth of the insects that are originally upon them, but because as a rale they 
are transported from the post or place of debarkation to the orchard or garden 
where they are to be grown with such dispatch that the chances of the natural 
death of the insects during transit are lessened to a greater extent than 
would otherwise happen. As will often happen, again, an introduced inseet 
that will manifest its presence in the destruction of a particular kind of tree 
or growing crop, will arrive upon a plant entirely different in its nature from 
_ that which in either of these cases it acquires a taste for. Thus an insect 
harmful to a fruit-tree may be brought here upon a purely ornamental shrub— 
rose-trees being especially noticeable in this connection—or, as often happens, - 
upon a fern of one kind or another. Nor is it essential in the case of every 
insect that the plant being imported, and on which it is borne, should be intact 
and provided with roots. Serious pests may arrive in a choice bouquet of 
flowers, and especially upon plant-cuttings. The contents of small packages — 
that enter through the post office may serve also in this capacity equally with 
the bulky consignments that swell the contents of ships’ holds. 
Not only may the plant itself bring destructive insects upon it, but the 
latter may occur in or upon the fruit that it may have yielded and is the 
exclusive object of commerce. This source of danger is especially to be 
anticipated in the case of certain scale insects, for these, though imperceptible, 
it may be, to the unassisted vision when this fruit is dispatched by the con- — 
signors, and therefore overlooked, may develop their tull proportions during — 
the course of a long voyage, to which they may be subjected, and so on their — 
arrival be already conspicuous objects. Fruits that themselves afford special — 
_ places of concealment, such as, for example, the eye in the case of the apple, 
pear, and quince, may, though apparently “clean,” on being disembarked 
harbour destructive insects in connection with them, especially plant-lice, 
young scale insects, and mites. Fruit, again, that reaches its destination in a 
rotten or semi-rotten condition should always be regarded with suspicion, as_ 
its decay may have been occasioned by the maggot of some fruit fly or by the 
caterpillar of some tunnelling insect, that may still occur within or adjacent to it. 
Vegetables, again, form a highly suitable material for the introduction of 
insect enemies, even when they form the kitchen refuse, rejected in port from 
day to day by the cook of some oversea vessel. Doubtless the majority of our 
cabbage pests—e.g., Diamond Moth and Aphis—have thus originated here. | 
Boxes, crates, bales, sacks, or the material that may compose the same or 
other packages will doubtless, as in the past, serve as the means for introduc- — 
ing iniurious insects, especially in their egg or chrysalis state, as many of © 
