A REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1921, Page 5

A REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE

LIGHTNING STRIKES A FARM. FURTHER DETAILS. On Saturday afternoon a party of Hawera residents motored out to Rahotu to view* the singular phenomenon reported in Friday’s News, fully expecting to find that the holes were the effects of a meteorite, which, if large enough, frequently passes through the atmospheric envelope of the earth without being consumed. The marks, however, were quite. plainly the results of electrical action. The large hole was about five feet by three feet, and about three feet deep. With the spade it was possible to feel a large mass of ironstone at its base. The paddock is full of this stone, and it was plainly the attraction of the stone that caused the outburst. Mr. E. Maxwell, who has lived on this farm for many years, and who very kindly piloted the party, says that on at least two previous occasions on this farm he has had stock killed by lightning. Running from the large hole are several tracks, on which the grass has been cleared for a width of three or four inches, and running from half a chain to a chain in length. The electrical current followed the surface of the ground, which was not level, and in only one or two instances did it tear up the soil, although the soil from the large hole was thrown over a chain away. There was no sign of scorching of the grass. The tracks wore’ zig-zagg-ed, each • track subdividing into other tracks, also zig-zagged. The tracks looked very much like the appearance of forked lightning. If the large hole werp represented as a lake, then the tracks with their branches looked like rivers and their tributaries, all leading to the larger lake. The tracks all ran co the south-east, and it spemed pretty evident that the electrical current came from the opposite direction. Near the zarge hole were two smaller holes, about a foot in length, and between them and the large hole the ground was quite hollow, showing that the current had gouged out a large cavity. But the most remarkable apparition of a remarkable phenomenon was that after the tracks ran for the distance mentioned, they ended in holes of about three or if our inches in diameter, which went downwards for varying distances. The first of these holes tried with the spade disclosed in the earth an old horseshoe. It seems fairly evident that the current had been deflected downwards by the horseshoe. Tn this particular hole, after going downwards for about eight inches, the hole deflected at right angles and ran along under the ground, but parallel to the surface. Another foot or so it zig-zagged again, still under the ground, but was not traced any further. Jt was still about three or four inches in diameter. At still another hole a heap of ironstone was found about a foot below the surface, evidently the attractive force that deflected the current downwards. How Mr. Maxwell’s pedigree stock, which were in the paddock—only a small one —escaped with their lives is a mystery, for it seems plain, that nothing could have survived within several chains of the outburst.—Star. ALTON FARM STRUCK. Mr. George F. Armstrong, of “Woodside,” Alton, writes to the Hawera Star: —Your reference to the remarkable happening on Mr. Maxwell’s farm at Rahotu, induces me to report a similar occurrence on Mr. Vai. Adlam’s farm at Alton, though not perhaps of such a violent nature. The blow-out and terminating holes are not in evidence, but in all other respects the two occurrences coincide exactly —two separate branches with zig-zag stem and offshoots probably half a chain in length, the grass killed, and a noticeable depression in the ground along the zig-zag track of the current.