Rare Fish Poisons C.I.
p. 16 · Read in the full issue
Girl.
Prom Our Own Correspondent.
Rarotonga, Jan. 9.
IT must be a million to one chance of being stung to death by the poisonous fish “Nou”. Pretty Vaine Taero, aged 15, died on the sth from such a cause.
The “Nou” buries itself in the sands of the lagoon: if one steps on it, sharp spikes penetrate the foot and inject poison which causes the victim intense agony.
It is fortunate that the “Nou” is a rare fish, and is so seldom seen.
EDITORIAL NOTE: The Cook Islands “Nou” fish is the same as the “Nohu’’ in Tahiti. The latter is a squat, ugly, mottled creature, with a large, upturned mouth, and the faculty of changing colour like a chameleon so as to har monise itself with the surroundings. It is armed with a row of graduated spikes along the dorsal fin, each of which is connected with a poison sac. Sluggish in its habits, it will
not move from its resting place in the sandy bottom of a lagoon until trodden on b$ the foot of an unwary bather or disturbed by some other cause. The poison is rapid in its action, and the puncture is quickly followed by agonising pain, accompanied by inflammation and a high fever. Natives have their own rem edies for “Nohu” wounds but the best way to treat the wound is exactly in the same man ner as one would deal with a snakebite.
Mr. R. J. Woodbridge, Collector of Customs at Vavau, Tonga, left Auck land, by the “Matua” on February 1, after furlough in New Zealand.
Norfolk
Island’S Trade
Imports.
Prom Prom Australia. Pacific Is.
December, 1936 .. .. £4,114 .. £7 December, 1937 .. .. £3,953 .. — Exports.
To To
Australia. Pacific Is.
December, 1936 .. .. £284 .. £63 December, 1937 .. .. £400 .. £11