MAORI CAPTURES A SNAKE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22409, 24 May 1938, Page 11

MAORI CAPTURES A SNAKE

DISCOVERY NEAR WAIROA BODY SENT TO MUSEUM FOR IDENTIFICATION (PRESS ASBOCIATIOK TELE GRAM. I WAIROA. May 23. A live snake, measuring 30 inches in length and four inches in circumference, was found near Taole Cape, on the northern extremity of Mahia Peninsula, on Thursday last. The snake was discovered by two children and was captured by a Maori, Teihi Peka, who succeeded in throwing a loop over its head. The snake was found some distance from, the sea. Whether or not it is of a dangerous variety is unknown in Wairoa, but some people are inclined to think that it is a variety of water snake which got out of its latitude. On being killed, it was forwarded to the editor of the “Wairoa Star,” who sent it to the Director of the Dominion Museum for identification. SPECIMEN LIKELY TO BE SEA SNAKE CAPTURE AT EAST CAPE FIFTY YEARS AGO CTHK PRESS Special Service.! WELLINGTON, May 23. Mr W. J. Phillips, Acting-Director of the Dominion Museum, said this evening that he had not then received the snake and consequently had .no idea what it would be. “There are many cases, however, of snakes being found in New Zealand, although there are none indigenous to the Dominion,” he said. “In most instances where land snakes have been found their origin has been quite definite —they were tropical snakes that have been landed from ships with cases of tropical produce and have been killed before they left wharves, or escaped from a circus or menagerie. “Stringent precautions, which have so far proved effective, have been taken to prevent the importation of snakes by accident or design. EVen for zoological purposes they are refused admittance. Two years ago a traveller from Panama brought a large boaconstrictor, which, when refused permission to land it, he offered to the Wellington Zoo. As even then no permission could be obtained to land the snake, it was killed on board the ship. “Sea snakes, on the other hand, cannot so easily be kept out, as if they can traverse the intervening miles of ocean they cannot be prevented from landing on some lonely beach,” he added. “A ringed sea snake of Fiji has several times been found in New Zealand, current-borne from the tropical seas of the north. This snake is amphibious, haunting the shore, and is marked with alternate bands of black and ivory, the back being of a darker hue than the under-surface. This snake is deadly poisonous, although being slow to anger. It is handled freely even by children in the islands, where it is exceedingly common, It is usually small, but specimens up to five feet long and as thick as a man’s forearm have been taken. A specimen of this snake was caught ! alive at East Cape in 1889. Numerous i cases of dead ones have been recorded. Sir George Grey presented one to the I British Museum as having been caught jin New Zealand. . _ , . . “Even commoner in New Zealand is ithe yellow-bellied sea snake, of which j dt least a dozen occurrences have been recorded. This snake is also poisonous. It is black and yellow in colour, : and is flattened irr form. It is a ■powerful swimmer. _ . “The view taken by the- Wairoa people, that the snake is a species of water snake which has been carried out of- its latitude, certainly seems a probable one.” ... m «.