STRANGE SIGHTS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1929, Page 3

STRANGE SIGHTS

! ' OFF'UAIVEWELL SUif i•>.!' 7 * : . 25 YEARS AGO. (By Telegraph—Press Association). ’"V NELSON, J lily 23. In reference to an article 1 published under the Heading of “Farewell Spit Explosion,’’’’‘giving particular!;*’of a curious phcnonnhibn that' was. seen a. good many 'yeafs' ! .'igo tliei'e’, Mr H. P. Washbourn, of'Port Nelson, who has spent 77 years, in the district, says that perhaps particulars of a somewhat similar one which he witnessed about 25 years ago would be interesting. “We were living,” he says, “on a hill at Parapara, about 40ft. above sea level, and so we had a good opportunity of seeing it. It was early in August, and it was a cold, damp, and rather dismal kind of evening, with big black, torn-looking clouds. From the west, a bright light appeared between us and a boat about 10 to 20 miles from us. The light was bright. It would have been brilliant if it had been quite dark, and it is not easy to describe. It was fanlike in shape, or somewhat like a quarter of a circle; with the point on the water. It was not just a quick flash, like lightning-, but it remained for at least several seconds, and we coukl see the boat as clearly as if it-were lying at the wliarf. 'mere was no noise, and the water was not disturbed, and we could see the light shining on the , ripples very plainly. Shortly afterwards, while we were- watching, it occurred again, at a guess, at a distance of half a mile in the direction of Farewell lighthouse, and it occurred again twice, at about the same distance apart, and in the same direction. AYe waited a- short time, and, as it did not occur again, we were just going in, when it occur red again about abreast of where the third one had appeared, only a good deal nearer to us. This time it appeared three times in the same direction, and about the same distance between each, and parallel to the former ones, making seven times in all. I tried to find out if the men in the boat had seen it. but as it was a dismal evening they had turned it. “As to the cause, we set it down to a freak of electricity, and T still think so. It is probably' that what they saw and reported as occurring off Cape Farewell was similar to what we saw of Puponga, and possibly during the same spell of electrical display. The latter report off Cape Farewell of a disturbance of the water, as if boiling, and the column of smoke passing the lighthouse, reads like a water spout, of which I once saw six in the neighbourhood, all going at the same time. T found that they . usually occurred after heavy northerly weather when the wind gets round to the west.”