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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.
“Anderson”4 pages
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# Auckland After Th. AUCKLAND, Today (PA).- organisation - Civilian Saucer Investigation (New Zealand)was set up in Auckland last night to prove or disprove the existence of flying saucers. The following committee was elected: President, Mr. H. H. Fulton (a sergeant in the R.N.Z.A.F. attached to engineering); secretary, Mr. R. J. Lavaris (a member of the Territorial Air Force); committee, Messrs. G. H. Gilmore (a former commercial aviation engineering inspector), B. Purdeu (a former R.A.F. intelligence officer), D. Lavaris (a student studying for a science degree), and E. J. N. Greager (an astronomer and engineer). The committee's address is P.O. Box 1914, Auckland. From discussions last night it seemed that committee members believe flying saucers are real. They consider that the saucers are driven by high intelligence and that they have shown a human way of avoiding aircraft and of seeking out certain obstacles. A globe pinpointed by Mr. D. Lavaris suggests that saucers or their pilots have shown inquisitiveness and curiosity. The most intensive sightings have been around Texas (oil), Fort Knox (gold stores), White Sands, New Mexico (America's atomic energy project), military bases, research stations, and, in the last few weeks, Australia and New Zealand. Is this, committee members ask, because Britain's first atomic bomb was exploded, recent, at the Monte Bello islands? mone, he said that since the social security scheme started in 1939, much more than £100,000,000 had been transferred from general taxes, to meet the deficiency. A commission of experts should, therefore be charged with examining and reforming it on a sound actuarial basis. High taxation, apart from its depressing influence on business, he said, did not permit an adequate proportion of the national income to be ploughed back as capital investment in buildings, machinery, and equipment. Taxation not only provided the Government with funds, but also served to equalise the distribution of wealth. However, overall taxation should be kept at a level which did not throw the commercial structure out of balance. Taxation now amounted to about 30 per cent. of the national income, against 19 per cent. in 1938-39. Capital manoeuvr Capital, manpower, and materials were today far from sufficient to meet demands. New Zealand could not increase production and thereby improve or maintain its standard of living unless it increased technical efficiency Should not the Government seek fresh capital through long-term loans, preferably in the United Kingdom, but, if necessary, in the United States or Canada, and thus ease the strain on # MORE REPORTS OF FLYING SAUCER AUCKLAND, Today. - Several people in Auckland have reported that they saw the "Flying Saucer" which an Otahuhu man and his wife claimed yesterday to have seen flying high over the harbour about 11 o'clock on Saturday night. Two people at Waterview, two at Grey Lynn, and one at Epsom say they saw a luminous bluish-green object, torpedo-shaped, travelling at a high speed. The object was well out at sea, opposite Whenuapai, and soon, disappeared silently. A man and his wife at Castor Bay claim to have seen a similar object about 5.30pm on Friday. It was heading down the harbour in the direction of Clevedon and took about 30 seconds to pass out of sight. Auckland astronomers and meter- ## Riccarton Run Confused By CHRISTCHURCH, November unsettled nature of the weather heavy track have left plans inde horses engaged on the second day ing at Riccarton tomorrow. Ho going were shattered when drizzli continued intermittently tods The forecast is for southerly patrons are due for another ologists said today that they knew nothing about the phenomenon. They had had no reports of meteors in the area lately. What is believed to be the first report of a "Flying Saucer" in the Bay of Plenty has come from a Te Puke resident who claims to have seen this phenomenon while fishing with a friend on Papamoa beach on Saturday night. He says "it appeared slightly above and behind Mount Maunganui, travelled in a southerly direction, and disappeared behind a bank of cloud." He describes its shape as "elliptical" and its colour as "blue-green." The time of visibility was about 8 to 10 seconds. The time of the appearance of the phenomenon was about 11pm. He says this corresponds with the time given by a Pukekohe resident who also saw a phenomenon in the sky about 11pm on Saturday. PA (Rec. 1.30pm). ## NO PRECISE DETAIL. "One would have to go into all these observers' letters in detail and carry out a big correspondence to get more information," he said. "With meteors, if we get the altitude above the horizon—and it can only be estimated because the meteor moves so quickly the direction, and, a bearing says, a church spire or a hill, we can draw a line on a map and do a bit of triangulation. But we need a great number of reports—200, or so—to cancel out possible errors. In spite of all the flying saucer reports all over the world, science has never been given precise information by which it could track such an object as it does meteors." All over the world people were sighting "saucers" for 10,000 feet and travelling at 2000 miles an hour, said Mr. Thomsen. That did not mean a thing. If people were as good at estimating as that they should be in the army as gun rangers. Mr. Thomsen said that since his name has been mentioned in connection with flying saucers two people had written to him asking if he wanted reports of sightings. He did not want to discourage flying saucer observers, but he did not have the staff to deal with such reports. He would prefe the reports to be sifted first by ## CLOUD OF WITNESSES Flying Saucers With Strings PARIS, Oct. 28 (Rec. 1.30pm). About twenty residents of Gaillac, in the south of France, reported today the presence of a formation of white circular objects surrounding something like a giant flying saucer. As the objects passed overhead let fall a string of bright wi threads which looked like glass w and melted away as soon as they w touched. A police officer said two of his n reported picking up the thread-last substance, but it melted. The observers said the objects slightly swollen at the centre, spun across the site in formations of two and were over the area for nearly half an hour. On October 17 a dozen residents Imoron, in the Lower Pyrenees, reported that they saw flying saucers surrounding a long cigar-like object flying in the clear sky at about
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