HALLEYS' COMET.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 261, 21 May 1910, Page 3

HALLEYS' COMET.

To the Editor. Sir, —In my travels out-back I came in contact recently with an aged Native woman at a certain kainga, who gave me some interesting information apropos of the above. Seated on the threshold of the whare smoking "Torori" from a short black clay pipe, she inquired from me if I had seen the comet. I replied in the negative, informing her I was waiting until I could get a view without getting up quite so early. She stated she had seen it that morning, and after drawing her a little I learned she had seen a similar comet which the Natives termed "Hapainatia" when she was a girl about ten years of age. She also stated {hat there was a long spell of exceedingly dry weather at the time and the Natives attributed this to the influence of the comet. Her forefathers had handed it down, that the presence of "Hapainatia" in the heavens meant the absence of cold, wet weather, and a long spell of sunshine. I have since been reckoning it up and I find that this was somewhere about the time when Halley's comet last appeared (1836). I thought this would be of interest to your readers as the old Natives' powers of observation are familiar to us all, and this history placed along side that prediction of Mr Wragge, and the recejit spell of extraordinary fine weather, renders the story worth recording.—l am, etc., __ G. ELLIOTT, Mapiu.