FLIES CAN BE A CRAVE MENACE TO PUBLIC HEALTH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 77, 16 December 1949, Page 5

FLIES CAN BE A CRAVE MENACE TO PUBLIC HEALTH

Coinciding with a' substantial increase in the fly population of Wha-katane,-there is quite a lot of “sum- ■ mer sickness” about. And “summer sickness” cannot be dismissed with-an airy wave of the hand, as one of those things everyone has at some time ok another. It can be serious. And it can be prevented. In this type of climate, flies, champion, disease carriers, breed rapidly. And they breed most where they are allowed to feed. Same goes for rats. That is why the Borough Council and its officers have been mak- ■' ing strenuous efforts lately to con/trol the old tip behind the Council / Chamhers. It must be maddening, after they have gone to the trouble

of bulldozing spoil over rotting re-

fuse, to find,, that some blythe spirits with no sense of public respon-sibility-have come along and unloaded sacks of rotten onions, rotten- bananasj stale bread, stale

cakes, and other items likely, to be siezed upon with whoops of joy by the rats and flies rearing their filthy families on this sumptuous diet provided by the criminal folly of the thoughtless. It is definitely an offence to dump foodstuffs. And it is the Council's expressed and advertised intention to prosecute the offenders if they are caught. Discussing the problem with the Beacon yesterday, the Town Clerk, Mr L. D. Lovelock, said the items of rat and fly food mentioned a little earlier in "this article had been strewn) during a week-end, anything up to a chain or two from the tip face. Dumped at the face and buried, such refuse could do no harm, but thrown at random the Way it was it was nullifying the efforts of the Council’s workers and the Health Inspector to have the tip cleaned up and ' prevent the spread of rats and flies from that source.

He mentioned that in many places waste foodstuffs are collected for pig , food. Such a scheme had been tried here once at the instance of the Chamber of Commerce, but had failed for want of public cooperation. Mr Lovelock pointed out that the Borough’s weekly rubbish collection was supposed to be confined to bona fide rubbish—old tins, broken bottles and crockery, bits of iron and glass, all the useless oddments that accumulate around any house. But the, disposal of food waste, vegetable peelings and so on, ,is and should be the householders’ own responsibility. ; Dug into the garden, such material makes excellent fertiliser. Allowed to lie ground, it attracts flies,, which should be regarded With the horror and loathing their disease-carrying mission deserves. It is everyone’s duty, to them-

selves and to the public, to wage, merciless and unremitting war on these enemies of public health.