There
was a lot happening in Otago and around the world in 1909.
It
was a year of rapid aviation advancement coupled with the scare of a
potential German invasion. Orville Wright's first powered, controlled,
heavier-than-air flight in 1903 (which lasted twelve seconds and covered
36 metres) was followed by Louis Bleriot's historic flight across the
English Channel in his twenty-five horsepower monoplane on July 25,
1909.
The
Cook Strait ferry, the SS Penguin struck rocks off Cape Terawhiti
on the12th of February and sank with the loss of 75 lives. The Defence
Act introduced compulsory military training in schools, supervised by
their teachers, which required all boys aged between 12 and 14 to undergo
52 hours of physical training each year as Junior Cadets.
In
Otago, the Plunket Society which had been formed in Dunedin two years
previously reached each of the four main centres. Mount Cargill's bush
was being felled or burned off. Charles Orwell Brasch the poet and editor
was born in Dunedin. Knox College opened.
1909
information available online includes:
100
years ago - from the Otago
Daily Times archives
The
Otago Witness began in Dunedin in January 1851 as a four page, fortnightly
newspaper. It became a weekly in August that year. At this time illustrated
weekly newspapers were a popular and important form of publication in
New Zealand and the paper continued to be published until 1932.
20 March 1909 edition.
