WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 88, 12 January 1928, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

That mankind can readily persuade itself it has seen what it expects to see was demonstrated by the numerous reports of the sighting of the missing aeroplane on Tuesday evening This is by no means the first time that a testimony of this kind has been freely forthcoming in this country, for even more remarkable were the innumerable reports from all parts of the country in 1909 of the presence of a mysterious airship in the sky. These reports appeared to originate at Gore, where it was stated that lights had been seen moving in the sky at night, and observers watching them professed to see a “black cigar-shaped body” to which the lights were attached. « • • People elsewhere in Southland and Otago began to scan the heavens at night for glimpses of this mystic airship, and large numbers of them persuaded themselves that they had seen it. The airship ■ was reported to be seen moving at varying rates of speed, circling around the district, and usually retiring into the mountains. In some places in Otago groups of school children testified to having seen in the sky at midday a strange machine “shaped like a boat with a figure of a man in it.” One such group of 23 Invercargill children had their story printed in a column report by the “Southland News.” together with reproductions of two diagrams of the airship drawn by the children, neither of which, unluckily, in the least resembled the other. With the accumulation of Otago evidence of a strange aerial visitant, people in other districts began peering out into the sky at night in search of airships and strange lights, and in one issue of The Dominion in July, .1909, appeared a whole column of telegrams from about, a dozen districts reporting fresh sightings of the fabled airship.

Residents at East Taiuaki, Auckland, bore witness to seeing strange lights moving in the sky.. Lights and a dark object moving rapidly were seen at about half-a-dozen places in Canterbury. From Motueka in the Nelson district came a report of a light “the size of a bucket”- —or a demijohn—over D’Urville Island. The driver and fireman of the Hokitika-Greymouth train saw the light over the sea rising and falling in a most peculiar manner, and informing the guard, the latter directed the attention of the. passengers who all bore witness to the phenomenon. Napier and Masterton residents saw it. At Waihi the presence, of the airship hovering over' the town one night was the thrilling and absorbing topic of conversation among the ■entire community next day.

. At 5 a.m. in the morning of July 30 two dredge-hands at Gore were favoured with a close-up view of the airship, which circled in the mist above the dredge, so close that “two figures were plainly discernible on board.” The airship left in a yellow glare according to the news report. The “Southland Times” .-even announced the capture of the airship at Waikaka, but this event proved premature. Diligent inquiry was made for secret inventors of airships, and it was discovered that :wo young men in Dunedin had built a practically complete aeroplane, ? the only detail of which the machine was shy being an engine. ‘ «

: Finally came'unimpeachable daylight, testimony—on ’the word of a 1 brother of the Magistrate”—as described in this Pless- Association message from Oamani under date ri July ■ 29, : 1909 : “For several nights mysterious lights have appeared in the neighbourhood of the Kakanui Ranges, and these have been watched by large numbers of people, several uspg glasses, but all doubts as to reality were set at rest this mornwhet Air. H. D, Bailey, a settler at° KauiOo Hill, and brother of the Magistnte, saw the airship at 8 o’clock. His attention was drawn to something unusual by the restiveness of his horses in : a xard, and on looking up he saw what he describes to a ‘North Otago Times’ reporter as a shape like a boat with a flat top speeding along at somethinc like 30 miles an hour or more. After watching it for some time he ran in to obtain his glasses, but by this time the airship had disappeared oyer the hil's. It was also seen by several people at Maheno, and its reality cannot therefore be doubted. If this is the same r.wsterious ‘something’ that has been seen in South Otago and. Southland, the ifl.rentor has a machine that can not otflv take long flights but that moves at aiverv great rate of speed. The distmee between the two points is about 2)0 miles.” . , ’ , ■i A. lot of people other than the good 'oik of North Otago have seen strange things in the sky. There is, for. instance the well-known conversation, between Prince Hamlet of Denmark and the Lord Chamberlain Polonius: Hamlet: Do vou see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel? Polonius: By the mass, and tis like a camel indeed. . Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel. Polonius’ Very like a whale. Hamlet: Or like a whale? Pelonius: Very like a whale.

Not big game, but big trees, is the quest of Mr. James A. G. Davey, the famous American “tree surgeon who is at present visiting New Zealand. Mr. Davev is stated to be equipped with a camera and a tree borer, and so far as one can gather, he does not intend to remove his captures home to America. After hunting big trees in California Mr; Davev has come across the Pacific to see New Zealand s kauri giants, and from here he goes..to Tasmania and Australia. Continuing journey, he will make for Palestine to examine, among other trees, re ancient oak standing beside the grave of Abraham. Next Mr. Davey will visit a horse chestnut tree on Mount Aetna 160 feet in circumference, and said to be the largest tree in Europe In Switzerland he will look for tne purple birch.

“Mr. Smith,” a man asked his tailor, “how is it you have not called on me for mv account?” , “Oh, I never ask a gentleman for ““Indeed! How, then, do you get on if he doesn’t pay?” “Why ” replied the tailor, hesitating “after a certain time I conclude h/’is not a gentleman, and then I ask him.” - landscape. Now this must be the sweetest place From here to heaven s end; The field is white with flowering lace, The birches leap and bend. The hills, beneath the roving sun, From green to purple pass, And little, trifling breezes run Their fingers through the grass. So good it is, so gay it is, So calm it is, and pure, A one whose eves may look on this Must be the happier, sure. But me—l see it flat and grey And blurred with misery, Because a lad a mile away Has little need of me. —Dorothy Parker, in the “Boofcmaß. -