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Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1938, Page 5

Electric power was cut off in the Hurford road district, New Plymouth, in an unusual fashion recently. For an hour and a half work in the dairy factory on the road was delayed until repairs could be made temporarily. The inquisitiveness of an opossum was the cause. The opossum climbed a nower line service pole, came in contact with a live wire, and was immediately killed. The charred body of the opossum acted as a short circuit, which ignited the pole and cross-arms, with the result that the top part of the pole was burned right through. The location of the scene of the trouble was made in an equally unusual fashion. Just before the power failed the wife of Mr D. Krutz, a farmer in the district, noticed a strange noise in the radio set. At the same time a bull tied in a paddock broke its tether and rushed up to the house. Sensing that something had frightened the bull. Mr Krutz investigated and soon found the damage to the power pole.