RP 16/6/54
Flying Saucers Classed As “Cursed Subject”
“And now this cursed subject of flying saucers . . .” said Mr. I. L. Thomsen, director of the Carter Observatory, Wellington, when speaking to yesterday’s luncheon of the Advertising and Publicity Club of Wellington. His subject was “Facts and Fancies about the Stars.”
The first flying saucer was reported in Canada, and it was not long before a “smart Alec” had to see one in Australia, said Mr. Thomsen. Soon flying saucers were being seen everywhere and people were beginning to think there must be something in the rumours.
“I do not want to suggest that all these reports were deliberately untruthful,” said Mr. Thomsen. But there were many honest people who, seeing something in the night skies that they did not understand, said: “That is a flying saucer.”
There were any number of these things that led people to believe they had seen flying saucers.
“Meteorological balloons are the worst offenders,” said Mr. Thomsen. The sight of one of these balloons with a light suspended beneath it had prompted a policeman to ring him up at an unearthly hour to report a flying saucer over Wellington. A check with the Meteorological Department had shown the flying saucer to be the usual meteorological balloon.
When he was working one night in the Lick Observatory, San Jose, he had been deceived himself, said Mr. Thomsen. He had seen elliptical lights moving across the sky. “By Jove — flying saucers,” he had thought. The flying saucers had turned out to be discs of light thrown by searchlight beams. In the city papers next morning, however, there were flying saucers in the headlines.
The glint of the sun on aircraft at high altitude was another source of flying saucer reports.
Fighters had been sent up to investigate a strange object indicated by radar above Washington Airport. Reports were radioed back that the object had been sighted but was eluding the fighters. The truth was that the fighters were going so fast they were chasing each other, Mr. Thomsen said.
The flying saucer plague finally grew so bad, two years ago, that American newspapers refused to print any more “saucer” reports.
Some writers had achieved notoriety by hoaxing the public with graphic descriptions and photographs of flying saucers.
But what had these people to gain by these hoaxes? asked the public.
“Well, I ask you . . .” said Mr. Thomsen.
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STRANGE LIGHTS OVER SYDNEY
SYDNEY, June 15 (Rec. 11am). —Two weather bureau officials reported strange lights over Sydney last night. Other reports of “lights” came from widely separated areas.
Observers said they saw lights between 7 and 10pm. They said the lights changed from white to red and blue before they disappeared.
The weather bureau officials (Mr. K. A. Smith and Mr. K. McKinnon) saw the lights from outside the bureau. They said the lights appeared to be at an altitude of between 500 and 1000 feet.
“The thing seemed to be revolving,” said Mr. Smith. “It showed a flickering bright light which faded away, and then returned. It was most peculiar.”
Other Sydney people reported “hovering lights” which changed colour.
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Strange Object Seen In Sky
TAUMARUNUI, Today (PA).—It is claimed that a “flying saucer” was seen at 8.30 o’clock on Friday morning between Lake Rotoaira and Mount Tongariro. The saucer was first noticed by a child who called the attention of her mother, Mrs. F. Bell, to the strange object in the sky. Mrs. Bell called out to the manager of Wair and Kenny’s mill, Mr. J. Mantell, and he states that he saw the object quite plainly. He thought it was flying at about 25,000 feet and was hovering in the sky when he first had his attention drawn to it. Then it vanished at terrific speed in a southerly direction.
Mr. Mantell said the saucer was shaped like a large bowl. It was flat-ish and completely circular.
He could distinguish what he thought might be two jets operating from one part of the saucer.
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A flying saucer season, having opened in Melbourne recently, has extended to Sydney.
So far, our observations have been a good deal less spectacular than those in the Victorian capital, where a number of people claim to have seen orange-coloured aircraft of curious shape and prodigious speed, spouting flame and making unfamiliar noises.
One apparently reputable citizen and his wife, having studied a saucer from their bedroom window at 2 a.m., described it as being 240 feet long—a remarkably precise estimate of measurement.
But Sydney vigils have unearthed—or rather unskilled—nothing more exciting than a strange light which floated over several suburbs one night this week, changing colour in an odd sort of way.
We may yet do better, for the Sydney Telegraph has begun to canvass for F.S. evidence, though it has not gone to the length—as the Melbourne Argus has done—of offering £1000 for an acceptable photograph of a Saucer.
That is probably just as well, for the other day an enterprising New Australian presented the Telegraph with a convincing-looking print of a round object seemingly sky-scudding at speed. It took two days of investigation to establish that this was a photograph of a piece of painted cardboard hanging in a room against a dark background.