OLD STORY RECALLED

Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 13

OLD STORY RECALLED

NEW ZEALAND'S "AIRSHIP" HAPPENINGS IN 1999 “ LIGHTS ” AND “FOREIGNERS.” The numerous statements by people who assert that they saw the Aotea-roa or its lights recall what was popularly known as New Zealand’s airship “craze” or “scare” of nearly twenty years ago (says the Auckland ‘Herald’;. it was toward the end of July, 1909, that reports wore circulated from Otago and Southland of certain weird and mysterious lights that were seen on clear winter nights in those regions. One report, from Stirling, stated that the lights were “moving about in such a manner as to give the impression that something in the nature of an airship was manoeuvring among the hills.” Next came a story of school children and others at Kelso, 100 miles from Dunedin, beholding in ihc air “a strange machine” which was described as “ shaped like a boat with what appeared to be the figure of a man seated in it.” The “airship,” which evidently was of an obliging disposition so far as the children were concerned, "circled high over the school” before if, disappeared. An observer at Kaitangata gave quite a circumstantial account of the mysterious visitor. Thus: “It moved about the hills above Kaitangata, sometimes swooping down from a height of apparently 2,000 ft to about I,oooft, and even lower. Then it would turn and make away toward the sea or would dip completely out of sight among the hills. It seemed to move with as much ease, and even grace, as a bird on the wing.” Two dredge hands at Gore, who were early astir ono morning, saw the “ airship ” about 5 o’clock. It lowered through the mist and circled round the vicinity. Two figures were plainly discernible on board. The machine, which was “ lighted at both ends,” manoeuvred and then “shot upwards.” CANTERBURY BECOMES INFECTED. The lights also appeared at Invercargill, where, it was suggested, they were the lights- of an airship that had been sent on a reconnoitring expedition by a German yacht, the Seesteni. This yacht had been reported missing, having been seen or heard of at Brisbane. Perhaps it was thought that the ’‘airship ” had crossed the Tasman Sea, but no theories on this point were ‘’advanced . Of course, Canterbury could not permit her sister province to have a monopoly of the excitement. People in that district, particularly in South Canterbury, “got the craze.” Residents of Timaru and surrounding districts came forward with circumstantial reports of “ mysterious lights in the sky.” Several said they saw “something” which they could not explain. Others, with a more fertile imagination, accounted for the lights by saying that they were those of an airship working from a base somewhere in the recesses of the Mackenzie Country. Needless to say the airship could not manoeuvre without men. The latter were supplied by Dame Rumor. Men in airships naturally converse with one another, and when the story of merely seeing the ship and its lights became somewhat stale newspaper readers were regaled with accounts of mysterious “ conversations in a foreign language.” No successful attempts at a translation of the “conversations” anpear to have been recorded. Either the eavesdroppers were not proficient linguists or the “ foreigners ” took good care to talk in some form of code. BIRDS AND FLAMING TORCHES.

There were, of course, attempts to account for the unusual happenings. The harbormaster at Timaru, who said he had seen ono of the lights, said it was nothing more than a ball of concentrated electricity known to sailors as a “Jack o’ Lantern,” and frequently occurring in foggy weather. Another theory was that all that had been seen was tho planet Mars, which was then in comparative proximity to the earth.

Somebody in Ulago hazarded the supposition that the lights were the product of a practical joker. He suggested that the joker had caught some seagulls which had gone inland “to follow the plough,” and had attached to them “a contrivance,” in the nature of a strong acetylene lamp. The lamps were lighted, and the birds released. What was more simple? This specious explanation, of course, did not embrace the _ spectacle of an airship and conversations in a foreign tongue.

The seagull theory met with a suggestion of support from a resident of Gisborne, who revealed a story of bis juvenile days in Otago, when, lie said, considerable excitement was caused throughout that province by a strange light being seen in the heavens. Ho said that scientific circles were considerably interested, but that no solution of the mystery was forthcoming. Tbo “phenomenon,” it was explained, was really a flaming torch suspended by some youths from a seabird by means of a length of cord. The perpetrators of the prank were so alarmed by the public attention directed to the “strange light” that they kept its origin a close secret. Before long the craze spread across the Otira to Westland, as there is a mention in the records of “ mysterious lights ” being seen by passengers on a train between Greymouth and Hokitika. Nelson does not appear to have been wide enough awake, to notice anything. SIGHTS IN AUCKLAND’S SKY.

Then, of course, the inevitable happened. The envious North became jealous, Aucklanders took a hand. While accounts of the lights in the South wore still coming to hand, there came a report that some people in Newton road, while gazing over the steeple of St. Benedict’s Church, had seen a “ mysterious light hovering in the sky in the direction of East Tamaki.” A similar observation was made a night or two later by some residents of Mount Roskill. Of course, it was the “airship”! A cruel correspondent of “ Mercutio,” writing from the King Country, attempted to pour ridicule on the reports. In a paragraph that appeared in “ Local Gossip,” he said that on “returning home late one night/' lie saw the airship. It came down sufficiently low to enable him to distinguish a German crew with the Kaiser at the helm. For tho first time, the public were told the nature of the conversation, the observer evidently being an expert linguist. The “AH Highest” was haranguing his crew on the subject of New Zealand’s native land policy I When the Kaiser saw the observer, he put his “hand in front of his nose in a certain attitude, and then the airship sailed away in the direction of Berlin!” This seems to have been the last that was seen of the “mysterious visitor.”