HAVEN OF THE IDLE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20096, 27 November 1930, Page 10

HAVEN OF THE IDLE.

USERS OF THE TRAM SHELTER. AN HOUR OF OBSERVATION. To test the contention of people who still feel aggrieved nt the order of tho Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) compelling the removal of the tram shelter. that this will cause unwarranted and intolerable inconvenience to tram passengers, a reporter spent an hour in t.he «li°lter dtirirg ?n afternoon this week in observing the üßers of lhe building. At the end of the period he left, it with an impression that, j are as might be his opportunities for passing sixty minutes in such a fashion, for the great majority of tho fifty or sixty people who occupied the teats it was apparently pari of the daily routine. Business men, clerks, and messengers gave tho Square an aspect of bustle, as they walked briskly about their business, for it was the middle of the afternoon, before the comina of five o'clock placed cares behind and brought the hours of relaxation within reach. But every seat round the Godlev plot was occupied, and the habitues of this island haven, surrounded by a ceaseless tide of traffic, overflowed ou to the low stone wall enclosing the lawn.

Within tlie shelter itself women sat in animated conversation, the topics Under discussion having endless variety, while most of the dozen ot so tnen appeared to be enjoying better the company of their own thoughts. One or two, however, engaged irt a random discussion pf such subjects as the Unemployment Board, wool prices, nnd the slump in Australia. Two women, each carrying a number of parcels, arrived together, occupied a sent, and coramehced a conversation about their shopping activities. This proceeded for pet-haps half an hour, tnon they left the shelter, one going north and thfe other South. Three other women, two of them with children, parsed ii few minutes in the shelter in the same manner, resting in their journey from (»ioiribo street south to the shopping centre north of the Square. Trams from the various termini arrived in an endless stream, deposited their passengers, were boarded by others, and moved on, but only a few of the shelter patrons displaced morfc than a passing interest. When it was timo for tho reporter to depart, he noted that at least 20 of the people who were seated ih the shelter when he entered it himself had not loft, and still showed little interest in the comings and goings of the trams arid other users of the building, several of whom occasionally walkod to the front of the shelter, looking in the direction from which their trams ■would arrive.

It was borne in upon the reporter that the shelter was the resort of a section of the habitually idle, n pleasant haven for women with time on their hands. Dunne this afternoon of warm sunshine, when tho riverbaiiks, parks, nnd gardens offered rest in pleasant surroundings, scores of people not tram user®, o.hcse to sit in that dingy shed, surrounded by the noise ot traffic.