SNAKES AND SPIDERS

Shannon News, 6 November 1928, Page 3

SNAKES AND SPIDERS

We are so used not to being bitten in New Zealand that the. unhappy experience of a Morrinsville farmer who was poisonously bitten by an ordinary spider seems unique, observes M.A.T. in the Auckland '.'Star". 'Ti S> a queer thing entirely that the katipo spider with the danger signal <eems the only venomous biter (if you bar confidence, men and an occasional captain of industry), and really the katipo spider seems to avoid human contact. Australians emit paeans of praise when they can walk in New Zealand grass or through scrub unscathed jmd without the necessity of carrying a piece «of fencing wire or a whip t-> break the back of the crawlers. Every school teacher in Australia is instructed in the art of saving lives from snake bites, "triantclopes" (tarantula), scorpions, bulldog ants and incredible myriads of lesser ants with effective ends. T;n India tens of thousands of people perish by snake- bites every year, and other things pop up in the jungle and take toll. too. .Maybe you don't remember that the puttee was invented ro wrap round the human leg to catch the snake bite before it got to the meat. The Indian people who perish oftenest are those who can't afford puttees. By the way, an Australian bushman the other day told M.A.T. that he knows" white men who pursue barehanded the poisonous reptiles, catching them deftly by the tail and flicking them suddenly to break their backs. Very likely it's true. The blacks certainly do it. Small Australian children in good rich snake country slitting the tails and threading the ' head of the next through the slit, thus making a long chain. You will wonder at the pluck of these school children until you hear that the snakes they 1 make daisy chains of are not poisonous. Still, they can give you a nasty i look.