AEROPLANE OFF WANGANUI.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17361, 13 August 1918, Page 4

AEROPLANE OFF WANGANUI.

f STRANGE SIGHT YESTERDAY.

IS THERE AX ENEMY RAIDER 5

In some parts of the world the sight and sound of an aeroplane sire so common that t-hr* average person does not so much a.s lilt his eyes skyward. In certain portions of New Zealand aeroplanes have also become common, sights, but the appearance of aircraft ii. Wangamu is something so strange as +o cause more than comment. Quite a lot of excite,, ment was caused shortly i,fter o o'clock yesterday afternoon by a report that, :;n aircraft—supposedly a seaplane— had been seen flying off the Wanganui coast. Two ladies were looking seaward through a window in a house on Durie Hill, when one noticed a moving object, .which she at once recognised as an aeroplane. She called the attention of her friend, and they both watched the flight of the visitor for a few seconds. Then, getting a pair of binoculars, they.went ou .to the verandah, and had a better view of the strange craft, which was njoving swiftly above the sea some distance off the South Spit. It apparently came from the west, and was heading south. The ladies were naturally excited, and they called to other members oi" the -household to join them on the verandah, but by the time the significance of the cal! was realised, the air. craft disappeared when over Landguard Bluff.

Nobody but the two ladies seems to liiave seen the strange visitor, but they axe absolutely confident that they are not mistaken.

This incident opens up quite* a big field of conjecture. If the ladies really saw an aeroplane—and there is no rea_ son to believe they did not —it must have come from somewhere. Whence)' That is the question. The most likely source, of course, is an enemy raider. Is there a raider in the vicinity ? That, also, is a question. In this connection it is interesting to recall, a-settler in the neighbourhood of Dunedin once declared that he saw an aeroplane ing over Otago harbour. The report was pooh-poohed, but when the German raider Wolf reached Germany, A tKe commander reported that the airman belonging; to the raider flew over Otago harbour, about the time mentioned by the Otago settler.