SNAKE ON BOARD SHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20024, 14 August 1928, Page 10

SNAKE ON BOARD SHIP.

LADY PASSENGER'S ORDEAL. INCIDENT ON THE MOERAKI. [from our own correspondent.] SUVA, Aug. 9. Many stories have been told of the sea, but few such as that which was reported when the steamer Moeraki berthed at Lautoka on Friday on her way from Suva to Sydney. It had been a wonderful night at sea, gloriously calm and tho ship was lit up by a silvery moon. In the early morning not a sound broke tho stillness but the swish of the waves and tho steady throb of tho engines. Suddenly from below camo a shriek and the ship woke to expectant life. A lady passenger had been aroused from sleep by the feeling of something squirming round her neck. Half dazed she put up her hand and brushed at the thing. A snake, vicious-looking, fell to tho floor and she screamed as she realised what it was. Her husband lost no time in killing it. It transpired next morning that on tho previous day husband and wife had gone ashore at Levuka and bought a bunch of bananas and it is surmised that the snake was coiled up asleep inside the bunch and that the warmth of the cabin had brought it out. Mr. C. B. Turbet, Fiji Government Veterinary Officer, who was on board, examined the snake and said that it was of the usual variety found in Ovalau. It was reddish brown and about 15in. long. It must have come on board at Levuka, he thought, as there are now no snakes on the island of Viti Levu, on which the town of Suva stands, owing to the ravages of the mongoose.