A SEVERE STORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 114, 30 September 1912, Page 5

A SEVERE STORM.

A WHIRLWIND'S FREAKS. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Auckland, September 26. News comes from Kaitaia, in the far north, of a curious storm at a place called Pukepoti). The Kaitaia correspondent of the Herald writes:—About three o'clock a whirlwind approached from tlie west with a deafening roar. It covered a space of from 150 to 200 yards wide, as travelled along. A hundred pine trees were destroyed on Mr. .Stuart Master's property. The wind passed dose to the Native School, levelling a large blue-gum tree in the •school ground, ami the school was shaken as if by an earthquake. The children became momentarily panicstricken. until reassured by the master. The storm passed over the bush-clad hills southward, and a well-defined mark shows tlie track of the storm. bush trees being broken oil', and some stripped of the top portions, others being levelled. The storm was followed by a heavy hail shower, this being especially severe between j'likepoto and the Ilerekino Gorge, llail, as large as hens' eggs, fell in places, and at the Wainui Settlement several windows were broken. One hailstone taken into the Ahiapara School measured "our mcties across. One at Takakue weighed two ounces.