DEATHS BY LIGHTNING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4930, 25 January 1926, Page 3

DEATHS BY LIGHTNING.

ONLY ONE IN A MILLION.

A SURVEY IN AMERICA. Fear of lightning is far out of plot portion to the grounds for it, according to the revelations of a survey made by Dr. Arthur Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture (states the New York Times). This survey showed that the chance of death by lightning is only one in more than a' million. In the course of a five-year period in Massachusetts only nineteen persons were killed by lightning, an average of 3.8 persons, a year. This is only one ten-thousandth of 1 per cent, of the population of the State. It figures out at but one chance in 1,013,770 of'a person being killed in the Bay State by a bolt from the clouds.

Tiie survey indicated that the man on the farm is ten and a half times as likely to. be struck by lightning as his city brother, because of the scarcity in rural communities of steelframed buildings, trolley wires, etc., that in the city relieve much electrica,l tension while a thunderstorm is gathering. But Dr. Gilbert assures the farmer that if he is in a house property equipped with lightning rods, lie is in greater danger than the city man. The farmer is 20,000 times safer from barm than a man dodging motor traffic in a large city. Dr. iGQbert’s survey was made primarily to determine the extent of the damage to crops by thunderstorms. He found that while these storms cause thousands of dollans'’ worth of damage 'to crops at times, they aid agriculture much .more than they harm it. The rainfall they bring saves large areas of products that would otherwise perish.,