Documents / Document
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.
“The Advance”22 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# YOUNG "SCIENTISTS" Efforts To Solve Flying Saucer Mystery WELLINGTON, Nov. 11. A New Zealand Junior Flying Saucer Society has just been formed in Wellington by six pupils of the Wellington South Intermediate School. The average age of the members is about 12 years. The society has no intention of affiliating with any other organisation interested in the phenomenon of flying saucers. The recently-formed body at Auckland is dismissed as "unscientific." Young in years and full of confidence, the members of the Wellington society are convinced that they have a scientific theory—of electro-magnetic attraction—which fully explains flying saucers. They hope, by careful observation, trigonometry, and the assistance of the Carter Observatory, to solve the mystery. Their theory is that flying saucers are from another planet comparatively close to the earth. They hope, by accumulating data about the description of saucers, their height, speed direction, and time seen, to pin-point the mother planet. Dissension of the theory breaks out at this point. Some members think the saucers are piloted by little men three feet high who are just observing the earth. Others do not believe in the little men. One school of thought considers that since an atom bomb was exploded in the United States all the saucers are now flying over New Zealand, where there is less radio activity. The opposing school considers that atomic explosions attract saucers and that there have been more seen since the Monte Bello test. Only one member of the society claims to have seen a flying saucer. ## Grants For Maori Projects The Maori Purposes Board has approved grants of £1000 each for two Maori community projects, it was announced today by the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Corbett. The first grant is for the proposed meeting house at Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt, the first peg of the foundation of which was driven on Saturday by the Mayor of Lower Hutt, Mr Percy Dowse. The second grant is for a community project, including a meeting house and amenities, at Otira, Bay of Islands.
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.