NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

## SUBJECT:

## FURTHER REPORTS OF

## STRANGE OBJECT SEEN WAIKATO TIMES IN HAMILTON SKY

The published report yesterday of a strange object seen over Hamilton by three different groups of people on Saturday evening has brought more reports from other people who saw the same object than in any other previous report of "Flying saucers." And in most of the cases, as in the three yesterday, the people concerned were quite prepared to give their names.

The first ring this morning came from Mrs C. Paterson, of St. Winifred's Avenue. She reported that she, her husband and two friends, Mr and Mrs B. McMahon, were standing in Victoria Street when she noticed a most peculiar object flashing across the northern sky from east to west, "Look, a falling star!" she exclaimed, although as she said it she realised that falling stars do not travel horizontally at great speed. Her husband and friends turned to where she was facing and they also saw it. They, too, were positive it was not a falling star.

## Time Coincides

Mrs Paterson described the object as cigar-shaped with a bulbous nose but it was not "hot" looking like a star or meteor but was a water-white colour. The time was exactly 7.28 p.m., as reported by the other people, and it was easily checked as Mrs Paterson was standing in front of a business clock in the street.

Mrs A. Watson, of Uister Street, and Mrs Orwood, of Plunket Terrace, were two other Hamilton residents who saw the same object at the same time and they agreed with the previous descriptions of it. Both were sure it was not an aircraft, a meteor or a failing star. Another resident, however, said that from Tainui Street she saw a very strange object in the northern sky at 6.50 p.m., over half an hour before the other sightings. She described it as brilht orange with a bluish light. Four neighbours also saw it at that time.

## Against Wind

Mr R. E. R. Grimmett, of River Road, also rang this morning to say that his daughter saw the "saucer" at the same time as the other witnesses. She called her father's attention to the object, but it had disappeared by the time he looked. She said it was travelling approximately horizontally and was about the same size as a chinney-jot at 50 yards' distance. An interesting point was that it was travelling in the opposite direction to the clouds at the time, and the prevailing wind.

Mr K. Hawkins and Mrs H. Wilson, of Victoria Street, also confirmed the report. They had seen the object flash across the sky. Although they saw it only for a second, they described it as being bright gold in colour and tapering from front to rear.

## Seen From Te Awamutu

"I definitely would not say it was a flying saucer that I saw but it was a very strange object that was neither an aircraft nor a falling star," said Mr R. M. Tompkins, of Hamilton, today in confirming that he witnessed the phenomenon. Mr Tompkins said he was in camp near Te Awamutu and at the time was on a hill overlooking the countryside. He was looking toward where some of the members of the 4th Medium Regiment had gone when the object caught his eye.

"It appeared like a string of four to five bright lights, but I could not see any shape behind them as some people have described," he said. "It moved very smoothly and rapidly across the sky, far too rapidly for an aircraft and too straight and smoothly for a falling star. After the reports by people who had seen it in the northern sky from Hamilton, the most puzzling thing is that it looked from Te Awamutu as if it were no further away than Ohaupo. It was a minute or two before 7.30 p.m."

Mr Tompkins said there was no one near him at the time but he later heard that three other members of the regiment had seen the object at the same time.

# 12. 13. 6. 11. 24 ___

# FLYING SAUCER SEASON STARTS

HAMILTON, Today (PA).-For the first time for many months strange objects have been reported over Hamilton skies. A man reported today that at 7.28pm on Saturday, while travelling with his wife and two children in his motor-car up the main street, he saw a strange-looking object travelling from east to west across the northern sky at a terrific speed.

He said it looked like a tennis ball with an elongated tail. What impressed him was that it had definite strong lights underneath, but was in shadow on top and travelling fast and straight. His wife and two children also saw the object, which was visible for some seconds before disappearing behind a bank of dark clouds.

It was definitely not a meteor, a falling star, or an aircraft, according to the man and his family.

"I have never seen anything like it in my life," he said. Several other people confirmed having seen the object, which passed at a great height and at great speed. The observers were doubt that the object was not an ordinary meteor.

According to a Press Association message from Whangarel a strange object was seen in Whangarel skies on Saturday night by Mr. H. P. Wynnatt; of Onerahi.

# "FLYING SAUCER" WAS METEORIC ROCK, SAYS

## CITY ASTRONOMER

WAIKATO TIMES.

The "flying saucer" which was seen over Hamilton on Saturday night was not a flying saucer at all, according to Mr Allan Bryce, president of the Hamilton Astronomical Society. Mr Bryce states this in a letter to the Editor of the Waikato Times.

Mr Bryce, who says the object seen was a lump of meteoric rock from outer space hurtling so fast through the stratosphere that it became white hot, expresses the hope that readers will not be too disappointed that the men from Mars had feet of clay—"or shall we say meteoric ash."

## Descriptions Good

"Though I did not see it, I have been interested in reading the reports of the 'strange object' seen in the skies over Hamilton on Saturday evening about 7.30," says Mr Bryce. "The descriptions published are quite good and seem to be reasonably factual, but I notice that most of the reports specifically exclude the possibility that the object was a meteor. This makes me wonder, for from my experience in the observing and recording of the appearance and paths of many meteors I would have no hesitation in accepting the phenomena your correspondents have described as those usually associated with an ordinary meteor, of which millions enter the earth's atmosphere every day.

"There is nothing unusual in its horizontal path, nor its colour, nor brightness, nor shape, nor speed. Meteors can and do vary in an almost infinite variety of ways in all those particulars.

"If its apparent path among the stars could have been plotted as seen from Hamilton and compared with the path as observed from Te Awamu, its true path across New Zealand could have been calculated and its meteoric nature would doubtless have been confirmed. Such simultaneous observations are, however, difficult to achieve, but they

very difficult to achieve, but they have been done often enough to enable many real paths to be calculated and they always prove to be the parabolic tracks of meteors entering and falling through the Earth's atmosphere.

"While we all hope to see a flying saucer some day. I feel that this one should be debunked while it is still hot. It was no saucer but a lump of meteoric rock from outer space hurtling so fast through the stratosphere that it became white hot.

## High Speed

'Its speed of 30 or 40 miles per second would cause the molten surface to stream off behind it, and this together with the associated envelope of glowing gas formed the 'eigshaped body.' The horizontal track low in the north indicated that it probably passed overhead at a spot possibly hundreds of miles north of Hamilton at a height of perhaps 50 to 80 miles.

"The distance such an object travels in the few seconds it is visible can be remarkable, and in this instance was probably not less than 100 miles. "Flying Saucers certainly have their points (and their ardent supporters), but I think meteors in their own little way have something too."