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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Christchurch”32 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## page 30 ## OPINIONS: ## Spaceman Lands In Norway continued The girls' uncle, Halvdam Jacobseh, who accompanied them on their berry-picking expedition, was troubled by the situation. I hesitate to accuse the girls of lying, but one fact is certain. No craft rose from the forest that day. I was never more than three or four minutes walk from the girls, and I reckon I ought to have seen or heard something. No, Flying Saucers exist only in people's heads. We hear about them from every part of the world. They are weapons of the 'cold war' causing unrest and fear of war." The girls' mother belives them, however, "That a man from another planet should land here seems too incredible to me," she said, "but I have no knowledge of such things. I would only have podh-poohed the whole affair if I didn't know my daughters." Commented Arvid Oyen and Jan Brechan, of the local road construction service. "We belive the story. People shouldn't be afraid to believe something unusual. We know the ladies, they are grown up and trustworthy. We have no opinion to offer as to the place the man came from, but isn't it reasonable to suppose that inhabitants of other planets have progressed as far or farther than us? ## * * * * * * * * * * * ## YES, THERE I S LIFE ON MARS. MARS IS NOT A DEAD WORLD. PROOF HAS BEEN CAPTURED IN PICTURES TAKEN BY AN AMERICAN-ORGANISED EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA. A huge blue-green area, believed to be living vegetation, has been discovered from the photographs. The vegetation covers 200,000 twice the area of Britain (88,000 square miles of Mars, more than square miles.) The surprise of the Expedition in making its discovery is disclosed today by the National Geographical Society, which, with the Lowell Observatory, organised and paid for the South African trip. ## DESERT CHANGE: The Society said that the discovery meant the greatest change in the geography of Mars since it was first mapped 125 years ago. It was "totally unexpected". "Never before has such a new dark splotch appeared except an increase of an existing dark area. The remarkable transformation indicates that the division between the Martian (orange-red) desert and dark areas is not necessarily fixed or permanent. One may change to the other at any time. It helps to support the conclusion that Mars is not a dead world, that the darkening is due to the growth of plant life. Biologists suggest that this life may be akin to lichens that grow on the earth's barren rocks and mountain tops. " And the Society said that to learn more about it such planfs may soon be grown in a laboratory under physical and chemical conditions thought to exist on Mars. ## "FLYING SAUCERS UNCENSORED" This Harold T. Wilkin's second book was published recently by Citadel Press, New York, 3, New York, U.S.A. This book was to be titled "WILL THE SPACESHIPS LAND", but was changed by the publishers.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.