RED RAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 November 1929, Page 2

RED RAIN

, BLENHEIM PHENOMENON. (Per Press Association.) BLENHEIM, November 28. Yesteyday Blenheim was deluged, with red rain, a curious phenomenon, which made itself evident by tinting such delicate flowers as arum lilies a delicate pink, leaving a rustlike deposit upon the foliage of plants, on the windows of motor cars, and along the' top fence rails. In one case, a Farnham lady, who left a week’s washing on the line, found it so streaked with red that various articles will have to be washed again. Some months ago, the appearance of red rain in Blenheim and other parts of the Dominion, was attributed to dust, storms in Australia the theory being, put forward that great clouds of red dust had been blown across the Tasman at a high altitude, to fall over New Zealand. It is considered by some people that yesterday’s phenomenon might be accounted for by the extraordinary Electrical disturbance which ushered in the dawn. The theory is advanced that a meteor or thunderbolt burst over Blenheim, filling the sky with minute particles of red dust, which later drifted to earth with the rain. STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. TE AROHA, November 28. When the thunderstorm broke yesterday afternoon, Tony Kriskovich, a Dalmatian, was crossing a paddock He had barely reached a galvanised iron shelter shed under the Thames Power Board overhead wires, when he was struck by lightning, which ran down his right side. His clothes were burnt off, and his skin painfully blistered. After treatment, he was able to return home.