A week in NZ Skeptical History - October 9th - 15th

October 9th

1980: Colin Gardener and his neighbour Helena Bradley see a lioness near Gardener’s home in Wellington. Which is notable because New Zealand has no indigenous big cats. A police search around the Meadowcrofts property turns up nothing. A few days later, Gardener and another neighbour, Maurice Bradley, catch another glimpse of the creature and determine that it is not a lioness but just an unusually big ex-domestic cat.
2021: After 23 years, Christchurch City Council call time on paying The Wizard of New Zealand. The Wizard aka Ian Brackenbury Channell, was paid $16,000/year by the council for acts of wizardry and other wizard-like services. At the time, Channell has received $368,000 for his services.

October 10th

1908: The Quackery Prevention Act was enacted by NZ Parliament, and would come into operation on January 1, 1909.
2001: A staffer of then Green Party MP Sue Kedgley responds to a letter asking for Kedgley’s help in banning the dangerous chemical dihydrogen monoxide. The staffer tentatively pledges Kedgley’s support. While the National Party criticised the mistake in a press release, one of their own fell victim to a similar prank in 2007.

Source | Sue Kedgley, ONZM

October 11th

2017: Stuff publishes an uncritical article about a private detective selling lie detector sessions for $575 to people who suspect their partners of cheating on them.
2018: Multi Level Marketing company dōTERRA opens a distillery for their Douglas Fir essential oil, called aoTERRA, in Arrowtown.

Source | Former Governor General Patsy Reddy samples some pine infused soda at the NZ Essential oils/aoTERRA facility.

October 12th

1892: A meeting of women at the Free Methodist Church in Christchurch initially planned to send a deputation to A. B Worthington, founder of Students of Truth. The gathering wanted to condemn his pamphlets on sexology and the harm it may have on the community. Instead, they marched to Worthington’s house and asked that he leave the city.
1898: William Larnach committs suicide and becomes a ghost at the Parliament library
1912: Dr. Felkin receives official permission from Reginald Gardner and Mason Chambers to establish and rule the Whare Ra Temple.
1918: Royal Mail liner Niagara arrived in Auckland from Vancouver and San Francisco. The ship was long believed to have brought a deadly influenza virus into the country. Rumours circulated that then Prime Minister William Massey rejected quarantine measures, However, six people had already died of the virus in Auckland 3 days prior to the ship’s arrival and the Prime Minister did not request special treatment.
1921: John Glover publishes two poems by poet Siegfried Sassoon in The Maoriland Worker. John is later prosecuted on a blasphemy charge for these poems, the only prosecution ever of blaspehmous libel in New Zealand.

Source | John Glover

October 13th

2021: Thames Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie tells Stuff that she has chosen to not receive the vaccine for COVID, and is condemned by health officials for her dangerous public stance. In May 2022, Goudie announced that she would not stand in the upcoming local body elections.

Source | Former Thames-Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie

2022: Dylan Reeve releases Fake Believe: Conspiracy Theories in Aotearoa. Drawing on two decades of observation and investigation, Reeves sheds a light on conspiracy theories and the direction we might be heading. James Brown reviewed Fake Believe in the August 7th edition of the NZ Skeptics Newsletter.

October 14th

2009: At a North Shore meeting, Donna Bird throws a tumour at a DoC speaker, saying that it was caused by DoC’s use of the poison brodifacoum.

October 15th

1982: Takapuna District Court hears Takapuna City Council’s prosecution against Centrepoint for excess residents.
1987: Denis Dutton gives a talk to a room full of Australian and New Zealand health inspectors, warning them of the dangers of alternative medicine.