A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9155, 12 July 1895, Page 6

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

Mr B. Toomey, signalman at the Heads, has certainly had some unusual experiences during the present winter. A week or two ago, he visited Lyttelton and had to pull back to the Heads in the face of very heavy wind and sea, only reaching home after several hours' severe work. Yesterday morning, he again came up to Lyttelton. The morning was beautifully clear aud frosty, the sun shining brightly, and the water as smooth as a mill pond. Under these circumstance, Toomey made excellent progress, and was rejoirting in his good fortune when he suddenly fuund the way of his boat stopped in a most unaccountable manner. He took his oar and went forward to clear away the obstruction, when he found, to his astonishment, that his boat had run into a sheet of ice which extended from Officer's Point to the Head of the Bay, a distance of several miles. The ice waa on an average about £in thick, and in many places considerably more than that. Toomey was still half a mile from the entrance to the moles, and to drive the boat for that half-mile taxed his endurance to the very utmost. The oars broke through the ice with every stroke, and the boat refused to carry her way in the slightest. So heavy was the work that at one time Toomey thought he would have to give it up and pull ashore - but he stuck to it with characteristic determination, and finally accomplished his task. The sun came out very warm during the morning, and by 11 a.m. the ice tad disappeared.

(press association telegram.) WELLINGTON, July 1L Wellington has, so far, escaped the excessive cold weather prevalent in the Suutb. Yesterday afternoon a southerly wind came on with rain, and this morning there was a thin fail of snow on some of the hills; but the day has been clear and sunny.