A tornado about 40ft wide swept through Nelson on May 3, leaving destruction behind it. The picture shows Mr W. Bell’s glasshouse after the tornado struck. — Otago Witness, Issue 3766, 18 May 1926, Page 43
Fences were torn down, outhouses destroyed, and houses more or less damaged; while a large glasshouse was totally destroyed. Fortunately there was no loss of life, but some householders had what are described as terrifying experiences.
The tornado came in from the sea. its track being, roughly, from the northwestern corner of Wainui street, in a south-easterly direction to Nelson Institute, Hardy street, where apparently it spent its force.
A stack of loose timber was hurled in all directions. One piece went through a bedroom window, showering the occupants with glass.
At Milton Grove more destruction was in evidence, and here the premises of S.J. Stewart suffered most severely. Mr Stewart said he heard a noise in the direction of the sea shortly before the shock came and remarked that there was something happening at sea. ‘‘The next second it was upon us,’’ he added. His house and outbuildings looked this morning as if a severe earthquake
had occurred. The verandah posts were wrenched off their supports at the bottom, and were hanging six inches clear of the boards. A large shed is resting at an angle and has been thrown off the perpendicular by at least 45 degrees. The iron was torn off the walls, the door was burst in and wrenched from its hinges and the window sashes were displaced. A fowl house, 26
feet by 12ft, was lifted bodily and came to rest upside down 50ft away.
It is fortunate that the track which the tornado followed was such a narrow one. Had it swept a wider area the loss to glasshouse owners would have been disastrous. A similar occurrence in Nelson cannot be recalled.
Brits square off
London, May 4: A general strike began at midnight.
It is understood that the Government intimated that it stood firm for the unreserved withdrawal of the general strike notices.
A crowd of 5000 in the meantime thronged the vicinity of the House of Commons, where first ‘‘The Red Flag’’ was sung by a group and then ‘‘God Save the King’’ by a far mightier chorus.
Mr Winston Churchill (Chancellor of the Exchequer) was walking from Downing street to Whitehall when the crowd which the police were keeping back on the opposite side of Whitehall, rushed across and hemmed Mr Churchill in. A number of police had to be brought from Downing street to clear the way for him. Eventually Mr Churchill was compelled to take refuge in
the Home Office. The mobbing incident is minimised by spectators who declare that the crowd blocked the Chancellor’s path through force of numbers, but little hostility was displayed.
Meanwhile a queue 1000 strong is lining the Foreign Office quadrangle waiting to sign as volunteers to help the Government. Special constables have been ordered to report. — ODT, 5.5.1926
