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Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 137, 6 December 1918, Page 7

"Man traps and spring guns set here," was a notice occasionally set up on jealously-guarded English preserves in. years noti very long gone by,/but the march of progress has put an end to such violent means of protecting what may be on the other side of the fence. An enterprising young man in the subxirbs of Christchurch recently conceived the idea of protecting his. father's orchard from trespass by concealing an electric wire amongst tho shrubbery surrounding the orchard at a height of 3ft or 4ft above the ground, and connecting it to the live 230-volt electric mains. Evidently he imagined that a notice at the gate, reading "Danger, live electric wires," would protect him from any legal liability in! ease of a fatal accident. After one or two boys had received severe burns, the circumstances were reported, to the authorities, and the offending wire was at once disconnected. Legal proceediugs are not being taken in this case, as no serious h.iflii was done, but it is important (says the Press) that any other users of electric supply who contemplated a similar method of protecting their orchards from the raids of small boys should realise the risk they are running. Though' a 230-volt shock under ordinary circumstances is harmless, it may, under such circumstances as these, in damp ground with wet boote, bo im)jossible to leave go of the wire, and thus have fatal results. The offender rendei'S himself liable to penalties up to £100, and'UK the exposure of bare electric lines in such a position that they can bo touched is a legal offence, ho renders himself liable to an action for damages and criminal, prosecution for manslaughter in case a fatal accident should result.