LIGHTNING STARTLES BUSHMEN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28008, 30 June 1956, Page 10

LIGHTNING STARTLES BUSHMEN

TWO FLASHES STRIKE TRAMWAY RAIL (New Zealand Press Association) GREYMOUTH, June 29. Two flashes of lightning in the bush near Mitchells, a settlement on the shore of Lake Brunner, startled a group of five timber cutters at about lunch-time today.

The first flash apparently struck a tramway rail against which one of the workers. Mr Wallie Barr, had his hoonailed boot.

“It certainly made me jump for a while,” he said this afternoon. “I felt squeamish in my stomach, and 1 couldn't enjoy my dinner.” When the lightning struck a moment later, another bushman, Mr Joseph Hill, was standing with one of his rubber-soled boots on the rail. He was knocked to his knees, and left dazed.

A third worker, Mr Ralph Dickson, of Te Kinga, was leaning against a spar-tree at the time. (A spar-tree is a high tree to which steel guy ropes are attached, which is used in felling operations.) Mr Dickson’s father said today that his son had “jumped up into the air like a Springbok, and then sagged almost to his knees.”

The winchman, Mr Gavin Dickson, refused to touch his equipment after the bolts had struck. The other workers were also frightened to touch any guy ropes. They subsequently walked out of the bush, leaving their tractor where it was.

One commented later: “I still feel butterflies in my stomach.”