NOT VERY GREAT

Taranaki Daily News, 13 February 1935, Page 4

NOT VERY GREAT

KATIPO SPIDER DANGER.

NEW PLYMOUTH MAN’S VIEWS.

That although isolated cases of bites by katipo spiders occurred in New Zealand coastal districts, he, did not think the danger was very great, was the opinion expressed yesterday by a New Plymouth man who is constantly on the beach. His remarks were prompted by an incident at Oakura beach on Saturday when a boy bitten, presumably by a katipo, had to be removed to the New Plymouth Hospital. While not attempting to deny the serious effects possible from a bite, the New Plymouth man said that although it had been held the spiders were fairly prevalent on the coast between Te Henui River, New Plymouth, and Waitara, he had not heard of any katipo being seen or of any untoward incident for a long time. He had often spent a spare hour or two on the beach turning over driftwood and tins, searching in marram grass and dead lupin wood, but he had not been successful. He classed the operations of katipo spiders as being m a similar category to aeroplane accidents —one heard of the isolated incidents and forgot the large percentage of freedom from untoward occurrences.