A SINGULAR OCCURRENCE.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 9, 15 July 1882, Page 3

A SINGULAR OCCURRENCE.

■• A rather singular occurrence, but one evidently attended by sonic danger, took place at the City Hotel, Christchurch, on Wednesday evening. According to the "Licensed Victuallers Gazette" a gentleman named Ryan jokingly asked the barman to blow throng" a stick. The barman, suspecting nothing, of course, ■ took the stick and blew through a small orifice. Before blowing, howerer, he presented the stick riflewise at another person, who dodged away from it, nnd by doing this evidently saved himself from serious injury. The bnrman blew as directed, and the result was most astonishing. A loud report, and the room was filled with smoke. A large picture indicating the excellence of some brewer's ale, hanging against the wall, was pierced with small marks as of'fine shot; a kerosene tin and a travelling portmanteau were equally disfigured, and the company were thrown into a state of consternation. Further than, tbis there was no damage done, which was very fortunate. The stick appears to have been loaded with some kind of dynamite explosive, which required nothing but a puff to bring its destructive quality into play. The injury done to the portmanteau, tin, and picture, shows that if the contents had been lodged in any one's head instead of in those articles the result might have been the reverse of trivial.