A PANIC STRICKEN CROWD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 57, 9 March 1907, Page 3

A PANIC STRICKEN CROWD

THE "COMET'S" PREMATURE ARRIVAL. FIREWORKS 7 "VAGARIES, Received !), 1,10 a m. Meluoi'b.ne, March 8. Twelve hundred people who as- . sembled in Witliamstown gsrden re , serve to witness a fireworks display I had sn exciting experience. A quantity of fireworks was stored under a platform round which the audience was standing Some onr I excitedly shouted "the comet," and almost simultaneously a quick succession ' f exphsbns occurfed, and everything was enveloped in clouds of smoke. A scene of wild excitement followed, everyone shoutina " the comet." The majority of those present, including the band, fled. The others lay flat on the ground. Sockets and other fireworks started from under the platform, and chased tlie terrorised people in all direction?, whilst Tarnus coloured fires added to the conviction that the earth was passing through the tail of Hatteucci's comet. On? man was hit with a "comet" stick and was rendered unconscious Another had a boxer hat transfixed, while,'a third rocket started a fire in a I house. Numbers of women fainted, and children screamed in terror.

Some boys created the panic by prematurely firing the fireworks beneath the platform. [The "comet" from which the panic-stricken people thought they were fleeing was Marchetti's, which, according to a recent announcement by Professor Matteucci, Director of the Mount Vesuvius Observatory, would come in contact ■ with the earth's atmosphere about the end of March, causing some danger.]