STARTLING EXPERIENCE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12455, 3 February 1909, Page 4

STARTLING EXPERIENCE.

I • ■- [United Peess Association.] ■ .' ■■'■-. Uhristohurch, Feb. 2' H Mr T. Davis, a Tai Tapu resident, had a startling adventure on Friday evening. He was bringing in cows from a paddock near his : house, :■■ which paddock is belted by pines of a 'great neight; Whan passing under one giant' pine, 120 feet high,.- -a vivid fiaah of lightning illumined 1 -taa scene, followed by a thundptc clap. Mr Davis heard a splitting ; and rending crash, and^ had the sensation pf beiog surrounded by lire. All round him large splinters of wood fell, with dead .branches and pine conesi 'and his experience was most terrifying. Mr Davis lost little time in seeking shelter in Mr R. ■ McAitney's.faniily residence, on the other side of the road, ' and the.fam- ; ily'were also cbn¥iderably startled.' Men in a whare. close to.Mr Djv.is? paddock saw a ball:, of lire bouncings about, the paddock like a football. ■"> The"Star's" correspondent visited 'tbe lobality on Satu rday, and' saw tha*; : the pine .referred to was bare of ereen foliage. . It has the appear, ance of; being the higne^t in the. plantsfion of trees in the vicinity." . Is was struck about 80 feet from '■ tbe'groaud, at wbich height a big shne has heen torn out of the trunk, one large slab of timber "lying un- ■• der the tree, and another across the; - branches ot an adjacent, pine. \ From tbe ppot where^the lightning struck the. tree 13 completely stripped of its barfe. For a radius of; 25 yards the ground ia strewn with , flakes ,of. ' bark, timber, dead branches and , doncs. . "■-..'.. - J ■'■/'•'■ '. Mr Davis had a very narrow es-. cape, and the tree, acting as a lightining conductor, had no doubt saved I his life. . } :/ . : ' What oan only be described. as a ! sheet of water followed ..the tb-inder, ! and' in a, few' minutes' ; time the road '. was covered with torrents. The ' storm "lasted only" a few minutes';- --'. but it was lively while it lasted, and; the remainder of the :e7oning was 'beautifully fine. , : .v ; :