Untitled

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 428, 25 August 1908, Page 4

The Western Star reports that a remarkable instance of the danger of lightning has come under its notice. At ten o’clock one morning a fortnight ago a thunderstorm broke overOtaitai Bush, and a settler there had a startling experience. It appears that during the progress of the storm he and his wife were sitting on either side of the fireplace when the lightning struck the chimney, carrying away a number of bricks. In its downward course it knocked a kettle off the hook and continued its way out by the door, where it followed a steel wire, which was connected to some 25 or 30 macrocarpa trees, damaging every one — one in particular being cut clean off 20 feet from the ground. At the farther 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 he came to, he looked for his wife, who, in her fright, rushed to her bedroom, where he discovered her covered with soot from the chimney.