1 Jory, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 143 
sooner fly off than be shot. Perhaps, as an article of commerce, as Mr. 
Corrie said, there might be a good sale for the piece of fur on their briskets. 
Mr. G. Searte (Toowoomba): The flying fox has been a pest for a long 
time, and I think the only remedy is for the fruitgrowers to tax themselves. 
The general fruitgrower in my district is prepared to do so, provided there is 
preconcerted action throughout the State to pay the tax. This is a matter 
which should be taken up by the agricultural and horticultural societies without 
badgering the divisional boards or the Government. If a good ease could be 
presented to the Government, I doubt not it could be induced to subsidise local 
effort for the destruction of flying foxes. With regard to what the last 
speaker said about shooting, there is no difficulty in shooting them. We spent 
a great sum of money a good time ago in destroying thousands of flying foxes 
that were then devastating the Toowoomba district. A company of gentlemen 
went out—twenty-four altogether—and they were shooting foxes all day. 
There was no doubt but that thousands were destroyed. We thereupon 
announced that we were prepared to pay 2s. per dozen for the scalps to 
those who chose to take up the industry of destroying flying foxes. The 
difficulty, however, was not in shooting the flying foxes, but in getting hold of 
the animals after they were shot. I have killed ten in one shot, but they still 
hung up in the vines after they were dead, so that it is impossible to get their 
scalps. These flying-fox camps, I may mention in passing, destroy hundreds 
of acres of scrub with their excreta. 
Mr. C. J. Pounn (Government Bacteriologist): The experiments in 
flying-fox destruction carried out in Samoa have been referred to. Mr. Reed 
was introduced to me by Mr. Thynne, and we carried out a series of experi- 
ments with the bacillus Zyphi murium discovered by Loeffler for the destruction 
of mice. Mr. Reed told me the same experiments had been successful in 
Samoa, and we tried them here under all kinds of conditions. We got 
fifty or sixty flying foxes, used the bacillus, and unquestionably everyone. 
died in due course. But thisis a disease of the intestines. In fact, 
it is really typhoid. When you communicate the disease to one fox, 
its excrement is spread about over the food which has to be partaken of by 
the other foxes in captivity. But, in natural conditions, the difficulty is to see 
that the excrement is spread over the food of the other foxes. That was the- 
great trouble. As for chicken cholera, I have tried it and found it to be a. 
failure. Someone has mentioned lyddite, but I fancy the lyddite theory is 
exploded. Then there is electricity. I know a place where alot of wires were 
ut up and an elaborate system arranged whereby to destroy a flying-fox camp. 
Tt cost about £150, and, I think, resulted in the death of about seventeen foxes. 
I hardly know what to say about Mr. Corrie’s idea of frightening the flying 
foxes away from their camps. tis just possible, if we turned up the dates, that 
we would find that flying foxes were very bad in Australia just after they were. 
turned out of Hiji. It is no use trying to introduce amongst flying foxes some 
disease belonging tov some other animal, because all those diseases which are 
known to us have proved failures in this connection. If you can geti hold of 
some disease peculiar to flying foxes, efforts to spread it might perhaps be 
successful. If some of the fruitgrowers going into the camps find some foxes 
that appear to be suffering from a disease, I will make an examination of 
them if they send them down to me. Of course, my aim would be to secure a 
disease peculiar to the flying fox and not communicable to human beings or 
domestic animals. 
Mr. Henry Tryon (Entomologist, Department of Agriculture): We 
have no bugs as large as flying foxes, so I am sorry to say the subject hardly 
comes within my scope. In 1889 I had occasion to say something about the 
flying-fox pest, and I not only suggested that it would be feasible to shoot the 
flying fox, but also that it might be feasible for the fruitgrowers to assess them- 
selve to defray the cost of this work, not necessarily to carry out the work 
themselves, but by others who might meke a business of it. I believe some- 
thing has since been done in this direction. I also suggested that it might be- 
