My New Zealand Garden 75 



apart from their venom, and one can only hope 

 that the Acclimatization Society will ever look 

 upon it in the same light ; and surely no private 

 individual would smuggle them here and turn 

 them lose surreptitiously. I am afraid their 

 appearance is only a question of time, for one or 

 two from Australia have already presented them- 

 selves. One arrived among the straw in a case of 

 wine but in an instance of that sort they can 

 hardly escape detection. 



We have one small venomous Spider, the 

 ' Katipo,' but as it is not in the least aggressive, 

 and is branded on the back with a red stripe, it is 

 easily avoided, particularly as it only inhabits 

 drift or dry wood which has been washed up by 

 the sea and lifted above high-water mark. One 

 other obnoxious-looking thing that we have is a 

 Centipede about 3 inches long ; but its bark is 

 worse than its bite, for it is quite harmless. I 

 was interested to dig one up on its nest of eggs 

 recently ; these were about ten in number and the 

 same size as snail's eggs, though hardly so white. 

 The cabbage-white butterfly, wasps, and hornets, 

 we are thus far free from, nor have I seen an 

 earwig, which used to be such a drawback to 

 picking a Dahlia in childhood, but bluebottles 

 and small flies are too plentiful. Possibly bac- 

 teria are not as deleterious here as elsewhere, for 

 a servant remarked to her mistress lately : ' I have 



