RECORD CROWDS FOR FINAL DAY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 188, 6 May 1940, Page 11

RECORD CROWDS FOR FINAL DAY

Memorable Scenes LITTLE SOUVENIRHUNTING With an attendance of 78,282 people, Saturday was the most memorable day of the whole Centennial Exhibition. In spite of heavy showers in afternoon and evening, buildings and grounds were thronged from the opening of the gates till their closing. The crowds were very orderly, and though a carnival spirit was much in evidence there was little vandalism or removal of unauthorized souvenirs, such as often mark the closing of exhibitions in other parts of the world. Traffic arrangements were easily able to cope with the heavy rush at the busiest hours—just after lunch, just before and after dinner, and from 10 o'clock to midnight. While trams and buses were packed and many travellers by these means of transport were obliged to stand the services proved adequate, and nobody had to wait long. There were very large number of motorists, and though the roads did not become congested the car parks, particularly in the streets, were well filled. Many of the visitors had come from far afield, and there were numbers of final excursionists from other centres. The crowds were notable for the large numbers of school children on holiday who were present.

There was a great rush for food and drinks, though the services and stalls catering for the refreshment of the public were well prepared. Previous experience on crowded days, when supplies ran short, had taught a lesson and this time they were ready for big crowds. Even so, the congestion made it difficult to obtain a seat in cafeteriaor restaurant, or to get near the counters of the refreshment stalls at busy hours.

A single enterprising pie-vendor laid in a supply of several lorry-loads of pies and opened up impromptu piestalls in many parts of the Exhibition. Many unauthorized piestalls were closed by the Exhibition officials, but at one stage a seller was doing a thriving trade in the main foyer and stalls appeared like mushrooms in many unexpected places in the course of the day. Unprecedented Crowds.

Buildings and grounds were packed throughout with unprecedented crowds. It required distinct effort to make one’s way otherwise than with the drift of the majority. It was amusing to see the masses in the open disperse as low clouds trailed unexpected curtains of rain across the Exhibition and folk scuttled hastily to shelter. As soon as the showers passed, they emerged uudiscouraged. Playland was crowded day and evening, with big queues waiting for their turns on the rides, and throngs around the favourite sideshows.

The car-park outside the Plunkct rooms presented an amusing sight, with rows of baby-carriages indicating the number of mothers who found it inconvenient to arrange to leave small children at home.

In the evening, there took place throughout the Exhibition innumerable informal last-night celebrations and farewell parties among exhibitors and Exhibition staff, for tlie majority of whom their six months fellowship came to an end on Saturday.

The drenched but crowded grounds, with the bright lights reflected in the puddles and the pools, made a brilliant and unusual spectacle during the evening. The fountain played, but at reduced strength, as the gusts carried away the plumes of spray to soak the paths to leeward. The 130 ambulance men and nurses of the St. John Ambulance Brigade on duty were kept busy mostly with minor mishaps. Three people were taken to hospital during the evening. “We have been wonderfully lucky throughout the term of the Exhibition,” said Mr. T. W. Wilson, the officer in charge. “We have had one or two fairly serious cases, but no really bad accidents the whole time.” He added that the brigade had dealt with some 3200 cases in the six months. More Children Lost. The police were again mainly busied finding parents for lost and strayed children. Approximately 50 were taken to headquarters in the administrative block, and were well and kindly treated there. One of the constables afterward admitted that, lie thought the value of an Exhibition policeman as husband and father should have been considerably increased by his experiences there. The Centennial Tower was particularly popular, streams of sightseers marching daylong up,the winding stairway and the balcony appearing constantly dark with faces peering down at the crowds in the grounds. Wind and rain did not discourage them. ’Throughout the closing ceremony the balcony was crowded with onlookers from this lofty vantage-point.

In the evening the Caledonian Pipe Band played in the north bandshell, where it attracted a large audience. The performance was impressive, and the skirl of the pipes added greatly to tlie gaiety of the grounds. 'The final concert in the Maori Court of the Ngati-I’oneke Young Maori Club party proved wonderfully successful. There were long queues waiting an hour before the performance was due to

begin, and the hall proved, too small to accommodate all who wished to attend. 21s usual, with so enthusiastic an audience, the performers were in high spirits and gave an outstanding entertainment.

Railway Model’s Mileage. The Government Court railway display attracted an incessant throng of schoolboys—and grownups—anxious to enjoy this wonderful exhibit for the last'time. The mileage barometer recorded that the little trains had run 4550 miles during the Exhibition, at 13 rounds of the track to the mile. All cinema performances and kindred displays drew big audiences. Indeed, there was no part of the Exhibition that did not find the day a record one. Souvenir-sellers were, crowded with customers anxious to send souvenirs to friends, or to obtain some memento to remind them of the occasion.

Most of the crowds dwindled and went home before the close of the Exhibition at midnight. There was, however, a big crowd in the cabaret, which was booked out beforehand, and some thousands lingering in Playland right to the end, to see the Exhibition out with much the same type of demonstration as that with which the old year is seen out annually on New Year’s Eve.

There was very little souvenir-hunt-ing. At big exhibitions, both in New Zealand and overseas, closing day is usually marked by the disappearance of almost any portable article. .Some exhibitors and officials in charge of various displays had anticipated this by placing wire-netting over valuable articles, or even putting them away. But it happened that there was no more filching of small articles than on almost any busy day, when inevitably a large number of things disappear. One of the most successful endeavours in the way of souvenir-hunting was made some months ago, • when aln entire model electric train disappeared from the Dominion Court. Saturday was generally conceded to have gone unmarked by any more than usual vandalism of this type.