AN AERIAL BOMB.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 885, 8 May 1903, Page 1

AN AERIAL BOMB.

COOTAMUNDRA’S FIRE-BALL.

The residents of Cootamundra liad scarce had time to view the scene of destruction caused by the hood, and certainly had been unable even to approximate the amount of their losses when a still more terrifying experience came upon them—an electrical disturbance of a character which in its appearance and effects can oniy be described as awful in its mvsteriousness. Attention was first aroused . by a loud, roaring noise, which, although louder in its din than the dreadful rainfall of the preceding evening, was different in its character, and so peculiar that it brought many people out on to their verandahs, not from feelings of curiosity, hut from apprehension of the occurrence of something dreadful. Although huge beams of timber and boughs of trees, together with sheets of corrugated iron, were thrown about like straws and pieces' of paper in a street- whirlwind, 1 lien; was hardly a breath or air perceptible Indeed the stillness of the atmosphere in this respect, was one of the dread sensations of the moment, for one found his mind overcome with the solemn thought of how little man’s might is in the presence of the powers of nature. The mystery oi the whole tiling was fascinating in its awfulness, and those who saw that fearsome fire-bomb rushing along the street experienced a shock to their nerves which will never be forgotten. The most miraculous escape was that of It. Wright, a man in the employ of \V. 11. Richardson, and boarding at the Commercial Hold. All at once the roof was carried away and bricks commenced to fail. He estimated that no less than sixty bricks fell on his bed. .Before he could get out, bricks had to he removed off the bedclothes and off his feet and other parts of his body. He was a lucky man to escape with a cut on his head and a few bruises to his arms. The weight of the debris on his bed had the effect of bending the legs of his iron bedstead. It is worth remarking that one of the occupants of another bed in the room did not hear thp ’ occurrence, and limy had to shake him a hit in order to wake him up. Sufferers from insomnia will envy this man. The electrical demon seemed to have come over the hill to the west of the town, and to have been attracted to Waliendoonstreet by the telegraph wires. of which a large number traverse this street oil poles. After slightly sinking Altwond’s residence on the hill, rpd a roof beside it. H continued its course,’creating great havoc as it went, and acting in a most remarkable way in regard to what was mined and what was spared. A laige number of m'iracuious escapes are rc-