THUNDERBOLT, OR WHAT?

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1921, Page 4

THUNDERBOLT, OR WHAT?

A PECULIAR OCCURRENCE. On the property of Mr. E. Maxwell, south of Rahotu, in a five-acre paddock in which were running six pedigree Jersey cattle belonging to Mr. M. G. Maxwell, a strange occurrence took, place, presumably during the thunder storm on Monday night. The paddock is an open level grass paddock, and towards the middle of it was found on Tuesday a hole about five feet across, giving the appearance of having been blown out by explosives, much soil being thrown out in a southeasterly direction, some to a distance of a chain and a half. From the edge of the hole, extending to a distance of Half a chain towards the south and southeast, run several peculiar branching and very irregular zig-zag tracks along the surface. Each branch end terminates with a hole about the thickness of a shovel handle, all deachnding into the ground with an outward incline. Towards the north-west a slightly raised rib of turf, feet long, with one hole about the middle and another at the end indicates the track of a discharge that has passed along under the surface. As the cattle are very valuable ones, it is most fortunate that they were apparently not close to the* discharge, as from the appearance of the ground any beast within a considerable radius would doubtless have been destroyed.