"ANNO DOMINI 2000"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 80, 28 December 1917, Page 7

"ANNO DOMINI 2000"

SIR JULIUS VOGEL'S REMARK- '• I ABLE PROPHECIES.' j

"Air cruisers" are now an accomplished fact. Particulars have recentlv been published of great aircraft which will bo able to carry as many bombs as the monster Zeppelins. Without discounting the prescience -of Jules Verne when ho wrote, "Tho clipper of the clouds" (foretelling the Zeppelin airship), credit is due to; another. ','Jules"-■ for foretelling tlie "air cruiser." This was Sir Julius Vogel, formerly Premier of New Zealand, who in W 3 book "Anno Domini 2000" (published in 1889), spoke clearly and definitely of monster "heavier than air" machines, called them air cruisers, and foretold the nieane of thoir progress by rapidly, revolving fans, driven by machinery. Writing of his imaginary inventor in this connection, Sir Julius said: "Ho dwelt on tlie fact that in all cases, the forces yielded' by explosives was through the change of a solid into "o gaseous body, and that tho volume ol' gaseous body was greatlyincreased by the expansion consequent on the heat evolved during decomposition. . Each fan could be impelled by a separate engine of light weight, worked with perfect safety by a cheap material." In view of _ the development of the' aeroplane, this prophecy written nearly thirty years ago is surely remarkable. In> tho narrative ■ one of these big air cruisers is made io leave Melbourne shortly after sunrise' and to reach Stewart Island at 4 p.m. the same day. Who can say that with an Italian having made an air trip from Turin to London in seven'hours, that, such a flight as Sir Julius foretold in 1889 will not be possible long before the year 2000. In the same book" is fortold a. "United Britain" , with representatives from all tbe colonies in the Imperial Parliament, each (including Ireland) with its own Government, 'and the Emperor • resident at Melbourne, but within easy touch of his vast dominions by "air cruisers" flying 100 miles an-hour (a speed already attainable by aircraft of to-day). "Anno Domini 2000" also Speaks of bringing into cultivation the pumice lands of the North. Island, partly by squirting some kind of puddle over the land (to fill up the interstices in tho pumice), but chiefly by irrigation.