On May 17th, 1894, news of an arrest made in Petone the previous night hit the broadsheets and started spreading across the country and even over the ditch. While it wasn't a case of murder, there was certainly no small amount of mayhem and mystery which left reporters hoping for some scandalous revelations to be made.
Our year in NZ Skeptical History is still moving along, with the goal of getting it finished (or as close as possible) by the end of 2022. December 5th to December 11th is surprisingly full of interesting skeptical events.
The Skeptical Calendar is 90% done and far be it for the Editors of this illustrious newsletter to even suggest its readers go out and be newsworthy, we might have a few days you want to aim for.
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.
2021: A group called Doctors Stand Up For Vaccination releases an open letter to the New Zealand public stressing the importance of vaccination. The letter is signed by 6535 registered doctors. - 2022: After being closed for a 2-year renovation project and a few weeks of public tours, the Hamilton Mormon Temple is rededicated. Listen to the Yeah… Nah episode about Bronwyn, Craig, and Mark's road trip to tour the temple here!
In honour of our upcoming conference, rather than giving a day-by-day recount of skeptical history, I pulled some Dunedin-specific events to share. While I wouldn't say Dunedin is the strangest place in New Zealand (that crown is currently held by Canterbury), its denizens are certainly trying their damnedest to convince us all about how haunted they are.
Our Skeptical Calendar, where we attempt to find at least one event of skeptical interest from New Zealand for each of the 366 days of the year, is nearly finished now, with just 20 or so days that we don't have an event for remaining. Here are the events that happened on this day in history for the next two weeks:
1977 - The Centrepoint Community Growth Trust is formed
Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne perform at Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival. Photo by David Stone. Source: Audioculture