AMUSEMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 190, 21 November 1910, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS.

BALLOON ASCENT. The public of New Plymouth are to have the opportunity of witnessing a balloon ascent by the Beebe Balloon Company at the Sports Ground next Thursday afternoon. The Beebe Balloon Company are originally from America, and in addition to Mr. Vincent Beebe, includes the celebrated aeronauts, Mr. Christopher Sebphie and Mr. Albert Eastwood. They have recently completed successful seasons in Auckland, Napier, Palmerston North and Wanganui, and during the past three years they have appeared with marked success throughout Australia and the East, where their exhibitions have invariablyattracted an enormous attendance and much favorable newspaper comment. For three successive seasons they were engaged as the star attraction at the Australian Natives' Association Exhibition, Melbourne, where they introduced some of the most spectacular and remarkable ballooning feats that the world has ever seen. Every ascent' arranged by tliem has been carried out exactly as advertised, and with great success. It is claimed that the Beebe Balloon Company are the originators of more sensational ballooning feats than any other aeronauts before the public, and that, their balloons are the largest of their class in the world, being 85ft. in height and 150 ft. in circumference. They have brought two of these monsters to New Zealand with them; one is named "King Edward V 11.," and the other "President Roosevelt." In addition to the balloons, their outfit includes seven parachutes, a special furnace for inflating the balloons, and much other apparatus, comprising in all something like six tons of gear. In New Plymouth, Mr. Sebphe will make a sensational ascent, to be followed by parachute descent, the intrepid aeronaut casting himself adrift from the balloon in mid-air with a closed parachute. This act differs from an ordinary descent by parachute, as the fearless aeronaut must take a headlong fall of several hundred feet through space, and trust to the parachute opening while falling at a terrific pace. Admission to the'exhibition may be had upon payment of one shilling, or by presentation at the gates of an empty lib. Suratura "D" tea packet, as advertised in our amusement columns.