PLANET MARS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 August 1924, Page 5

PLANET MARS

RESULTS OF OBSERVATIONS

SIGNALS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. THE CANAL THEORY. 5 > OASCi, PKJCtiB Ai3tfOCIVI , KJN--OOt*l'UiGir> NEW YORK, Aug. 23. A telegram from Newark, New Jersey, saj*s signals of a mysterious origin were received with peculiar frequency by radio operations at a station Keeping watch m an endeavour to listen-in on Mars. The signals were distinctly heard on a wave length of 25,000 metres. The immovable dark spots observed on Mars, according to observations from the Lowell observatory, are possibly snow. An eclipse photograph expert states that the spots covered an area of ten thousand square miles on the bright coloured areas of the planet, which have been, described as desert regions by astronomers

BUENOS AYRES, Aug. 23. Beginning at midnight on Thursday the Argentina high-power station at Monte Grande suspended transmitting for - ten minutes in each hour for four hours, awaiting possible signals from Mars. None came, and if any were sent from Mars the officials declare they could not be heard.

, LONDON, Aug. 22. The English astronomer, Air. G. H. Hamilton, in a letter from Jamaica, where lie has been making observations on Mars, says there are canals on the planet, his drawings whereof The Times reproduces. He adds that he can understand why the French astronomers failed to detect them, because the position of Mars did not favour observation in northern latitudes.

Mr. Hamilton deduces from the changes which occur that the Martian polar snow cap melts every morning and re-forms in the evening, thus daily irrigating the caanls. The Times, in a leader, points out tfhat this does ;not mean that the canals were made purposely for irrigation, still less for agriculture. It is stretching the inference to assert that the canals were made and are used intelligently, thus inferring that rational beings inhabit the planet MELBOURNE, Aug. 24. The secretary of the -Victorian Spiritualists Association, who claims first-hand knowledge of Martian matters, says that frequent manifestations from Mars and other planets have been received bv spiritualists during recent years. “We have been told,” he added, “the conditions of life and so on, and have no doubt that only Mars, but many other planets, are inhabited.” He heard of no special message on the present occasion, adding: “We travel in the astral and do not recognise distance; therefore, it matters not whether Mars is thirty-four million or thirtytour billion miles away.”

. SYDNEY, Aug. 24. Astronpmer Gale states that though the conditions were not favourable for the observation of Mars, he obtained some interesting results. Some of the so-called canals appeared very clearly, but the darkened area, surrounding the south polar cap, which is generally believed to be water, was faint and of less extent than a. feu* weeks ago, indicating that. the advancing season causes a rapid evaporation, or the transfer of moisture from the polar area < .