On July 13, 1959 in Blenheim, New Zealand, Mrs. Moreland saw a sharply- outlined saucer-shaped object with two extremely bright sources of green light on the underside. The object was approximately 20 to 30 feet wide and hovered at roof-top level, about 15 feet above the ground. Inside a transparent dome, she said, there were two men, "dressed in fairly close-fitting suits of shiny material."
Mrs. Frederick Moreland, of Blenheim, New Zealand, a busy housewife with five children, was helping her husband tend their small nine-acre farm as well as working part-time as a nurse's aid at Lister Hospital, in Blenheim, at the time her sighting occurred.
On July 13, 1959, at 5:50 a.m., it was dark with a low cloud cover when Mrs. Moreland went to the barn to do the morning milking. She noticed a green glow in the overcast and was half-way across the paddock when she saw two large green lights emerge from the clouds and descend rapidly toward the ground, in her direction.
"I noticed that I was bathed in a green light and that all the paddock was green, too," she later reported. In her written statement to the local police, she said that it was so bright she could not see her own "torchlight" in the green glare.
"It was a horrid sort of color. My first thought was, `I shouldn't be here, 'and I made a dive for the trees on the other side of the paddock."
In the protection of the trees, Mrs. Moreland saw a sharply- outlined saucer-shaped object with two extremely bright sources of green light on the underside. The light from these sources beamed out over an area of 50 yards. Two rows of jets around the center of the object "shot out orange-colored flame" and appeared to revolve in opposite directions. The object was approximately 20 to 30 feet wide and hovered at roof-top level, about 15 feet above the ground. It was no more than 50 yards away from her.
"The jets stopped," Mrs. Moreland said, "and a light was switched on in what appeared to be a perspex or glass roof or dome, which glowed." (Compare with the Ririe and Idaho Falls, Idaho, cases of late 1967) She said the bottom appeared to be of a grayish, metallic color.
Image by Mark Cashman based on witness account and sketch. (credit: Mark Cashman, TemporalDoorway.com)
There was a faint hum as the object hovered "and the air became very warm." Inside the transparent dome, she said, there were two men, "dressed in fairly close-fitting suits of shiny material." She compared the material to aluminum foil. She said the occupants wore "opaque helmets" that rose straight from their shoulders. They seemed to be of normal size. She noted that one of the occupants never moved.
"I could not see their faces," she said. "One of the men stood up and put two hands out in front of him, as if leaning over to look downwards. He then sat down and, after a minute or two, the jets started off again and, tilting slightly at first, the thing shot up vertically at great speed and disappeared into the clouds. When it did this, it made a soft but high-pitched sound." She reported that a peculiar smell, somewhat similar to pepper, lingered in the air as the object departed.
Mrs. Moreland stood in the trees for several minutes, not knowing exactly what to do. She finally went on with her milking but was so disturbed by what she had seen that, at 7:00 a.m., she went back into the house and told her husband what had happened. Mr. Moreland, employed by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, suggested that she call the police, which she did.
An official enquiry began which included an investigation by the RNZAF. Mrs. Moreland's report was given wide coverage in the press and some time later it was learned that about an hour before Mrs. Moreland's sighting a Blenheim man named Holdaway had seen a white-orange object through his window.
Many people subsequently interviewed the witness, who impressed them with her straightforward account of what she had seen. NICAP has a copy of the witness' first-hand, signed report of the incident. Dr. James E. McDonald, during a trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1967, had the opportunity to interview the witness and he told NICAP that he had been quite favorably impressed.
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| Another image by Mark Cashman. (credit: Mark Cashman, TemporalDoorway.com) |
Summary of Sighting from original SATCU file report
"...Mrs. Frederick Moreland went out [in] the morning to milk the cows...crossing the paddock [she] suddenly noticed a bright green light among the clouds; it caught her attention because there was no moon... she saw two green lights rapidly descending. 'I noticed that I was bathed in a green light and the paddock was green, too... A saucer-shaped glow with two indented green lights in the bottom descended.. Two rows of jets around the middle shot out orange colored flames... the jets stopped, and a light was switched on in what appeared to be a perspex or glass roof or dome, which glowed... There were two men in it, dressed in fairly close fitting suits of shiny material... after a minute or two, the jets started off again, and... the thing shot up vertically at great speed and disappeared into the clouds.
"... she noticed an unusual green glow, emanating from the cloud above and bathing the area in a ghastly light... Then, suddenly, two green lights "like eyes" appeared through the clouds, circled by a band of orange lights. All around her the ground was illuminated by the sickly green light... she too was bathed in this green glow... She saw a flattish cylindrical object slowly descending from about 50 ft above the ground. It stopped its smooth descent some 30 feet above the ground and hovered about 15 feet above a group of peach trees (10-15 feet high)... it was between 7.5-8 feet high and 20-25 feet across. There were two circumferential rows of orange-green "jets" set into bands at the top and the bottom of the main body... the jets were a brilliant orange color, with greenish centers, and faded to the outside, through orange to yellow. They made a faint hissing noise...
"The motionless object hovered some 30 feet above the ground, about 120 feet out in the center of the paddock...
"On stopping, the jets immediately shut off and reappeared at a slight angle. Each band of jets began to counter-rotate at high speed, the top band from right to left, and the bottom band from left to right. The speed became so great that the bands of light became continuous, "like halos"... a loud humming could be heard, and the noise of the jets hissing... There was a clear, glassy, dome-like structure on top [shaped like an F-16 cockpit crossing the top of the disc], filled with a bright white light... She could see two figures seated, one behind the other and facing the same way, a little over an arm's length apart... The two figures were dressed in almost skin-tight metallic suits which crinkled and creased with each movement and reflected the light. The man at the rear suddenly stood up and leaned forward on his hands and appeared to be observing something between himself and the figure in front, possibly the brightly flickering light source... The rear figure then sank back to his former position - the front figure remained motionless...
"The object then tilted slightly, the bands of jets went out, then back on again without the rotation. There was a loud "whoosh" of air and the object rose vertically (the body still at a slight angle) and vanished into the cloud at tremendous speed... accompanied by a high pitched [very loud] whine... A moment or two later a wave of warm air reached Mrs. Moreland and there was a strange hot pepper smell of ozone." - SATCU file report
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| Side-view drawing based on the sketches by the witness, courtesy of SATCU (Scientific Approach to Cosmic Understanding). (credit: Mark Cashman, TemporalDoorway.com) |
NICAP Summary
July 13, 1959: Blenheim, New Zealand. 5:50 a.m. Mrs. Frederick Moreland, a part-time nurse's aide, was helping her husband tend their nine-acre farm. It was dark with low cloud cover when she went to the barn to do the morning milking. She noticed a green glow in the overcast and was halfway across the paddock when two large green lights emerged from the clouds and descended rapidly toward the ground in her direction.
"I noticed that I was bathed in a green light [emphasis added] and that all the paddock was green, too." she later reported. In a statement to local police, she said that the green glare was so bright that she could not see her own "torch light" (flashlight beam). "It was a horrid sort of color. My first thought was, 'I shouldn't be here,' and I made a dive for the trees on the other side of the paddock."
From the protection of the trees, Mrs. Moreland saw a distinct saucer-shaped object with two extremely bright sources of green light on its underside that illuminated an area of 50 yards (45 meters). Two rows of what seemed to be jets around the center of the object were emitting orange-colored flame. The rows appeared to revolve in opposite directions. The object, about 20-30 feet (6-9 meters) in diameter. hovered at rooftop level, about 15 feet (4.5 meters) above the ground. It was no more than 50 yards (45 meters) away from her.
'The jets stopped," she said, "and a light was switched on in what appeared to be a Perspex (plastic) or glass roof or dome [emphasis added], which glowed." The underside was a gray, metallic color. She could hear a faint hum, and "the air became very warm." Inside the transparent dome were two men "dressed in fairly close-fitting suits of shiny material." She compared the color to aluminum foil. They wore "opaque helmets" that rose straight from their shoulders. They seemed to be of normal size. One, she noticed, never moved.
"I could not see their faces," she said. "One of the men stood up and put two hands out in front of him, as if leaning over to look downward. He then sat down and, after a minute or two, the jets started off again and, tilting [emphasis added] slightly at first, the thing shot up vertically at great speed and disappeared into the clouds. When it did this, it made a soft but high-pitched sound [emphasis added]." A peculiar, peppery smell lingered in the air. - Richard H. Hall - NICAP
Sources:
ufoevidence.org
NICAP
The NZ Files: UFOs in New Zealand
SATCU
The Unspeakable and Others
ufocusnz.org.nz
Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma
ufologie.patrickgross.org/
Marlborough Express, Blenheim, New Zealand
Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds
"UFOs - An International Scientific Problem", paper presented by Dr. James E. McDonald, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Astronautics Symposium, Montreal, Canada, March 12, 1968
