Dense Crowds in Sydney.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 3, 4 January 1901, Page 4

Dense Crowds in Sydney.

BLOCKING THE TRAMCARS. STANDING ON TABLES. TURNING ON THE HOSE. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. Sydney, January 3. Some idea of the enormous crowds may be gathered from the train and tram traflic. Over half a million people were carried on the trams on Tuesday, one hundred and fifty thousand in excess of any other record. Yesterday it is estimated there were four hundred thousand passengers. People hung on to the footboards two deep, and even invaded the roofs of the ears. It was impossible in places for the trams to pass each other. Numbers were swept off, but as the pace was necessarily slow noserious harm was done.

The railway returns show that there we over one hundred and sixty thousand passengers on Tuesday, against eighty-five thousand on New Year’s Bay. ' The steamer traffic was equally big. The North Shore Ferry Company carried eighty thousand passengers in a few hours without a single accident. So great was the rush on the refreshment rooms that many had to close their doors. Hungry visitors took possession and stood on the tables, and flooded every nook and comer, so long' as they got something to eat.

A portion of yesterday’s Fire Brigades’ demonstration had to be abandoned owing to pressure of the crowds of people clustered so thickly round the steamers. The crowds persisted in obstructing the movements of the firemen, and the latter were' compelled to requisition a hose, with an abundant supply of water. With loud shouts of laughter from the men and shrieks of consternation from the women, the crowd scattered before the watery onslaught like mists before the rising, sun, but no sooner did they make an opening in one place than they worked round and hampered the firemen in another. The people were practically unmanageable. A small body of police were present, but were unable to do anything.