Kaitaia Farmer Hoaxed Services

Northern Advocate, 17 June 1947, Page 4

Kaitaia Farmer Hoaxed Services

REPORTED JAP. 'SUB' 77 .

(P.A.) THE story of a. Northland model Japanese submarine in a authorities that an enemy raide the armed services to be alerted hoax of the war. In November, 1944, it is Kaitaia reported the sighting of

Every major and minor war vessel at Devonport naval base was brought to the ready. Those at sea on patrol were notified by radio. The Air Force and Army were informed immediately and an extensive air search organised. Bombcd-up Venturas and Hudsons took off from Whenupai and other aerodromes.

From the tarmac at Ardmore a Corsair fighter roared oft' for Waipapaltauri field to pick up a roll of films which, it v/as believed, would show the Japanese submarine photographed by this Kaitaia farmer. POLICEMAN SUSPICIOUS Air Force cameramen processed the film and a submarine was revealed, either just surfacing or riding at anchor.

The service chiefs were worried men

The pictures appeared to reveal a Japanese I Class submarine, the conning-tower and superstructure showing plainly. The hunt for the submarine began. However, a police photographer, Vic Naylor, became suspicious. His expert eye detected what appeared to be flaws in the pictures. Senior Detective E. Stevenson, of Auckland, with Naylor, made inquiries. According to information now disclosed, the farmer said he made an 18in. wooden model of a submarine and photographed it in a cow trough. No prosecution followed, but it is stated that the entire file went to the desk of the Attorney-General in Wellington.

AUCKLAND, This Day. farmer who photographed a

, cow trough, hoodwinking the r was off the coast and causing 1, reveals New Zealand’s biggest

now revealed, a farmer of a Japanese submarine.

' OTHER FALSE REPORTS The Northern Advocate's Auckland correspondent says the farmer had been under suspicion previously for endeavouring to disrupt the country s wa’ - effort.

He had several times sent in false and misleading reports about shipping, about blinking lights at night, and other unusual things. He had tried to make himself important by getting the Services to take notice of his vigilance. He had failed to make very much impression on Service chiefs in Auckland, who had caught him out each time he attempted something new. So he hit on his novel plan to make those in Auckland sit up and take notice.

After he had made his model submarine, he put it in his big concrete cow trough and pointed his box camera at it after stirring up the smooth water a little. HARD TO CONVINCE He was careful pot to get the sides of the trough in his picture and pressed the trigger. He took more than one shot. Then he destroyed the model and went to the telephone and phoned headquarters. For a long while he stuck to his story that there really had been a submarine and that he had taken four photographs from the hills of his farm, but Detective Stevenson and the police photographer, Mr Naylor, were hard men to convince, for they thought the picture had been taken otherwise.

At last the farmer began to change his story and finally the detective broke him down.

It was good work on the part of both policemen. As quickly as the “flap” had come to life, it went dead again.

The planes were called in and the ships brought back. The Northland farmer’s trick had cost New Zealand a lot of money and a few big headaches for those in responsible positions. TWO MODELS It is stated that the farmer made his model from a piece of wood he had found lying around the farm.

He made the conning tower separately and then attached it to the hull. He took some photographs of one model placed in the sea and later, in November, 1944, of a second model placed in a cow trough. He said he had done it because he had repeatedly told the authorities that enemy submarines had visited the coast and they would not believe him. The authorities had, of course, fully investigated all his former reports and they had become convinced that he was a nuisance.