INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 258, 7 September 1867, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

The Wanganui Times reports that a man named Farley, a tailor by trade, nad choked himself .while dining at the Masonic Hotel, River Bank. The man had , tried to swallow a piece of meat, which stuck in his gullet and eventually choked hitn.r . The Wellington Independent says that private letters receitfecL at Wellington an-; • riounce the arrival of from the East. He was to leave for^ew """'*• Zealand about the beginning of winter. In a recent issue we noticed the fact of the flagstaft at the Bluff having been struck by lightning, The, Southland tfew^ of the 10th now records the singular coincidence of the lightning again spiking the! staff at about the same place and the samej • time on the evening of Tuesday, the 6th, exactly a fortnight from the; previous '.'. striking. The staff, after the previous accident, had been secured, 'as a temporary measure until a new one could be obtained, with a thick chain twisted three times • round the heel, and four wreckers had also been placed there for its further support, The lightning on Tuesday night last had first struck the top coil of-' the chain, and running down A shattered the body of the mast to piecesj spme of which was thrown a distance of 20 ft. over the parapet wall. In its downward course it had divided the chain into three lengths, jfl which were thrown out into a straight line « extending from the foot of the mast to the. \r westward and the eastward- it had then > divided into two currents, the one passing^^^P along the chain, which was burn f #iii places * quite bright, to the ' westward, grooving its way through a piece of solid rock, and had disappeared down the slope of the hill. The eastern current had also followed -, the chain to its termination, producing the same effect, then making a circular hole of six inches in diameter in the ground; displacing a solid stone foundation itnd scattering it in all directions, had passed along ■ the ground of the intervening space of 120 feet to the proximity of the signalman's house, loosening the stone rubble, chimney from the body of the building, inside o% which the inmates were much alarmed a^ the severe shaking. The flame of fire had also run up the mast, reaching; to its; top and marking its course in several burns in places of a few feet apart. The signal-box placed* near the staff had also suffered some damage, panes of glass being broken and the contents of the shelves Jjein| thrown abont in great confusion;' :;H t