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Otago Witness, Issue 3954, 24 December 1929, Page 69

Australia is blamed for a good deal, but it suffered unjustly the other day when a scandalised Aucklander discovered an obnoxious animal making havoc among the manuka and other trees (says the Star). The thing bored holes as neatly as an augur and very nearly as fast Having read about the dreadful perforators introduced into the Dominion in the thousands of hardwood poles used by the boards that supply electric current, the Aucklander naturally thought that he was harbouring prohibited immigrants, so he set about snaring one. He was fortunate enough to capture a large, healthy-look-ing, leggy thing with an evil-looking head that seemed to be composed mainly of nippers. Putting the thing into a bottle, he forwarded it to the Star office for identification. As soon as Mr A. T. Pycroft saw it. he claimed it as a fellow NewZealander. the weta, which is as good a borer as anything Australia can produce, but so far lias not worried anything but a few forest trees. There is one tree, Carpodetus seratus, which the Maoris call putaputaweta (“weta holes”), from the fact that this weird insect goes exploring up and down the tree's inside and makes regular passages, until parts of the tree look like a Gruyere cheese. —Wells. Somerset, is the smallest city in England, with a population of 4372.