SYDNEY IN STRIKE TIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 8, 4 October 1917, Page 7

SYDNEY IN STRIKE TIME

SIGHTS AND INCIDENTS. The Ada Reeve Company is tho first to arrive in Wellington eince the Sydney strike. Mr. Percy Crawford, the manager, was .all through the earlier stages of the strike, and talks very interestingly on the subject. ' ■ . "Of course,"- he' says, ■ "all the shows suffered with, no trams, or,' at best, a veiy service. People could not , get into. the. city with any, degrt-o of comfort,; nor out with any degree of. eer•tainty. ' The only show in Sydney that ;ield out well was the Williamson one, ' principally on. account of the fareweil fortnight of Dorothy Brnnton, who is, • of course, a great" favourite ■ over there. jWhU do.you think of having, to pay 2s. -fora ride to the top of Williams Street from the city, and half-a-crown for a t;t,further out? '. People/rode in anyithing they could get in or out. Char-u----bancs and motor.lorries streamed into the city, from all. parts of the country. They came from'as'far.as Goulburn and ! Orange, and reaped a rich harvest carry■ing people ,in and out to work at fares ' that. wonld.make you stare. . One a-banc driver whom I knew , confessed to making £iO. a' week! ' People rode in anything—"old buggies, and buctboards, an'iehays, and even the rabbit-men left ■-off singing o.ut. "wild rabbits" to struggle along the road with passengers at a. •bob a head. Funny! You would see smart bank clerks and lawyers riding in these queer, conveyances,. cheek and..in most cases enjoying the experience, for I'must say that, taken .as : a Mole, the feeling that prevailed was gbdd."' ' -'• ■" .•"■■• •"'•■ ' ' c At'that- time there were 500''loyalists, as .they'were called; camped in the Sydney Cricket-Ground, ■ and 2000 'loyalist' ' -watersiders at Taronga Park (the new Zoo), on the harbour front; They were camped there because it was an '■ easy matter to , 'transport them'by launchto the • various wharves. On one' occasion three'lorries were ordered to take beer out in a certain direction. When they feot to the place; where they were to geldefinite instructions that it was-for the "loyalists" at the Sydney Cricket Ground. ;Wh"en thy drivers heard this, they made ' a break 'back 'to the city. .One -load was secured for the" camp, but the others got' Of course, the strikers made the most of the incident, and accused the Government of having to feed'the "loyalists" on beer in order ": make them work, and give them an obscured Vision, llr: HugTi-D. IT'lntosh promised to send out a company from- liie.TivolMo/giVe 1 the "loyalists" a Show, but , the'Miv.s got out, arid a picket poslnd outsVio the theatre warned Mr- M'lntosh --that. tho. theatre would be declared T>lack,'' and all eorts of things- would- happen. ■' Wo got over the. difficulty—as' we did "not want tosee any of oiir artists annoyed— b- smuggling the Bnrns-.luhnsDn fight film out to the carrip, which pi'fbnl'i,v pleased the men as much as a vaudeville show-would have doni' : . ' "One of thesuresf th»!ii6metoi-3 as to how thing" were going were tlic s'.viltpis , ' procession The' authorities' permitted such 'displays on thiee tiays a week, and at first it was common, to see 7000 or SOOO, perhaps s-ven 10,000,-me'n nnd walking! in .column, but when I-left-the number. had dwindled down to less: i} an 2000, arid , was growing I'ti.tiirii'ully less on each turn-out." , ■- . - -