ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS AIRSHIP(?).

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9550, 23 July 1909, Page 7

ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS AIRSHIP(?).

Ridicule and rigid cross-examina-tion (says the "Otago Daily Times" of July 16th) have failed to shake the theory that a light, supposed to belong to an airship, was hovering over the Wangalora Hills, near Kaitangata, on Sunday night. The narrative of this extraordinary apparition was supplied to the "Free Press" (Balclutha) by several eyewitnesses who are prepared to take an affidavit to the truth of their statement, which (according to the newspaper named) is as follows: "It firat came into our view from the east, and we thought it was a meteor or a falling star, but the light grew in brilliance. 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 sea, or would dip completely out ot sight behind the hills. It seemed to move with as much ease, and even grace, an a bird on the wing. The light carried was a strong and steady one, and whenever the sh p, or whatever it was, turned, we thought we could see a dark, opaque body. Certainly we could see with out doubt the reflection of the light in the clouds. Jt was a white light with a reflector. When she was bide on we thought we could see the reflection as of a black body above and b§3ow. It was a marvellously mystifying sight. After we had watched it for a good halfhour the ship moved off in an easterly direction, whence it had first come into view. I left my companions and made off home, and then a peculiar thing happened. I had been walking for 10 minutes, and chanced to look skyward, and 10, bnd heboid! there was the rnyster- > us Iu; ht. high up in the sky, and moving off inland in a westerly direction, towards the Blue Mountains, as it seemed to me." The story has been received with some incredulity, but the kite and the advertisement balloon theories advanced have been scourited as being as wildly improbable as the airship. Seeing that the gentlemen who witnessed the phenomenon are of unimpeachable integrity, residents are at a loss what to make of it. "If it isn't a hoax, or an airship, what is it?" is a question being general ly asked.