BULLET CUTS OFF POWER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 75, 21 December 1937, Page 3

BULLET CUTS OFF POWER

-Press Association.)

(B.v Telegrapb-

CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. Bullets from a small-bore rifle cut a 6000-volf cable supplying Waimairi County with electricity last night, and left consumers without power and liglit for between two and three hours. The death-chavged cable was severed near an insulator and fell on to a gorse fence. When linesmen sent out to find the break arrived about nine o'clock, they located the cable by a strcam of craclding blue sparks leaping from the wire on to the wet hedge. Power was cut off at a nearbv switchbox, and temporary repairs were made. The break occurred about seven o 'clock and power was restored by ten

o 'clock. Permanent repairs were eftected to-day. The incident recalls a discussion at a recent meeting of the Waimairi County Council, when Mr. W. P. Spencer drew attention to wholesale snooting in the country. "Shooting around Spenoerville road and Stewards's Gully is a inenace to human life, " he said. "Gunmen travel in cars, one man driving and the ot^ier shooting. They loolc like a picture of the war in China. Insulators are sniaslied and our telephones are out of order half the time." He added that houses in the. districl *»*ere riddled with bullets.