Page 2 Advertisements Column 5

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2282, 29 August 1908, Page 2

The “Western Star” reports that a remarkable instance of the danger of lightning lias come under its notice. At ten o’clock one morning a fortnight ago a thunderstorm broke over Otaitai Bush, and a settler there bad a startling experience. It appears that during the progress of tlie storm he and his wife were sitting on each side of the fireplace when the lightning struck the chimney, carrying away a number of bricks. In' its downward course it knocked the kettle off the hood and continued its way out by the door, where it followed a steel wire which was connected to some 25 or 30 macracarpa trees, damaging every one—one in particular being cut clean off twenty feet from the ground. At’ the further end of the fence two horses were feeding from a box containing chaff. This was smashed to atoms, and an examination of the spot showed that one of the horses had received a shock, as it had fallen. The settler himself was rendered helpless for a few moments, and naturally when lie came to, he looked for his wife, who, in her fright, rushed to her bedroom, where lie discovered her covered with soot from the chimney.