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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2106, 14 June 1907, Page 3

During a heavy shower of rain at New Plymouth on May 27th, there

-as an unusually severe’ flash of

lightning ,accompanied by a loud peal of thunder. The streets were

illuminated for a few seconds as though by a powerful searchlight of a blueish hue, and the electric arc lamps in the main thoroughfare, and also the lights in several business establishments and private houses were affected. A rather extraordinary feature was that the lightning was not repeated, there being only the single flash.

There are two Russians now residing in Wellington city who were induced to leave their native land for political reasons. The majority of Russians, aided by the immigration facilities of Canada and the United States, have invariably gone to these countries, but the two here referred to considered there would bo great difficulty in getting work in either Canada or the United States, owing to tho number of thoir countrymen who were daily leaving for those countries, and decided to go further afield. Hearing New Zealand spoken of from one end of Russia to tlhe other as the “working-man’s paradise,” and an ideal place to live in, they decided - that it was a country worth going many miles to see. The reformers speak of tho social life of Now Zealand as an ideal to which all Russians should strive to attain. They are vory much pleased with Now Zealand, and considered it a fine country to live in.