116 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Avea., 1898. 
Mr. G. F. Sanprock (Rockhampton) said that, in the district he had been 
farming in, flying-foxes were also very troublesome, but a difficulty had been 
to find where they camped. He had seen them coming past his placein swarmslike 
bees. In the North they were very troublesome just then, and, though they 
once had attacked the orange and left the mango, they ate and destroyed both 
now with equal impartiality. They destroyed, however, more than they ate. 
Combating them by inoculating them with some disease, he thought, was a very 
good suggestion. Worse, perhaps, to many fruitgrowers in the North than 
flying-foxes were the fruit-fly and other insect pests, and they all knew 
what losses had been sustained through growers raising bananas, sending them 
South, and having them rejected. A discovery of remedies for such pests would 
confer a yreat boon on fruitgrowers. A pest growers suffered from was the 
stinging of fruit by moths. Formerly these moths had confitied themselves to 
oranges, but now they were attacking bananas. He used to get a man to go 
through his orchard at night and destroy the moths. This was an excellent 
remedy, but as his neighbours took no action in the matter, and their moths 
came over to his trees, he had to abandon the practice. He would like to hear 
from Mr. Benson as to how best cope with insect pests. 
Mr. J. Ginmore (Allora) said that about three years ago flying-foxes were 
very bad at Allora, and on one occasion alot of young fellows, armed with 
guns, clubs, and sticks, followed them to their camp and destroyed between 
3,000 and 4,000 of them. On visiting the same spot after three weeks, it was 
discovered the camp had disappeared, and since then the district had not been 
troubled by the pest. An odd one was seen occasionally, but that was all. A 
worse pest up there were the wallabies, which were a regular scourge, and did 
more harm than the flymg-foxes or the rabbits. Most of the land, too, where: 
the wallabies came from was Government land. : 
Mr. P. McLean said that reference had been made to the sum of money 
that had been set apart for the destruction of flying-foxes A lot was heard 
about flying-foxes some time ago, and as a result a sum was sct apart to subsi- 
dise local effort for the eradication of the pest. Nearly all the divisional 
boards were advised of the offer of subsidy, but, notwithstanding all that had 
been said of the flying-fox and the necessity for dealing with it, the fund set 
apart for subsidising local expenditure in the destruction of foxes lapsed 
through effluxion of time, because absolutely no claim had been made upon it. 
Eyen up to date only four, out of all the local bodies in the colony, had sent 
in tardy applications for subsidy from the fund. In some respects the flying- 
fox was harder to deal with than other pests. One district over which a local 
authority held jurisdiction might not be troubled with the flying-fox, although 
at the saine time it might be a breeding ground for foxes which preyed upon 
other divisions. He, too, had had flying-foxes as tenants of his on several 
occasions. He had a vast scrub on a property of his in which flying-foxes had 
camped in millions. He yot rid of them, however, and he dit so by shooting 
and continually harassing them. If several hundreds in a camp were shot for 
a few days in succession, the whole camp would soon shift. Shooting would not 
eradicate flying-foxes, but it would drive them into the back country or out on 
to the islands, andif a simultaneous attack was made on them so much the more 
effective would it be. Mr, J. C. Pound, Government Bacterologist, had not 
lost sight of inoculation as a means of attacking the pest, and a gentleman 
from Samoa had been trying experiments in the colony in that direction, 
although no definite results had eyentuated from his tests. 
Mr. O’Kxure (Blenheim) mentioned that the gentleman from Samoa 
referred to had been in his district, but owing to the scarcity of flying-foxes 
he had only been able to get two or three to experiment with. 
Mr, J. H. Davipson (Wellington Point) reminded them that the flying- 
fox was very migratory ; and although he might be driven away temporarily 
from a district, he would come back again. 
