THE APPALLING ACCIDENT AT THE LIVERPOOL THEATRE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5541, 31 December 1878, Page 3

THE APPALLING ACCIDENT AT THE LIVERPOOL THEATRE.

(From the Daily Chronicle, October 12). The panic which last night occurred at a Liverpool theatr*, and which resulted in a loss of thirty-seven lives, recalls the necessity that exiats for a strict supervision of places of amusement. The Liverpool Theatre is situated in a part of the town which is the chief resort of seafaring men. The habituis of the Coliseum are chiefly youths, with a mixture of foreign sailors and the usual rough classes incidental to a crowded quarter of a seaport town. The place appears to have been somewhat crowded, and the entertainment was of that variety character which beat attracts a very mixed audience. During the singing of a comic song a cry of firo was raised, and the audience at once appears to "have given way to panic. Whether this cry was the work of some malicious person, or whether it was caused by the fright, occasioned by the fall of a portion of a roof in the back part of the pit, there is yet no means of determining. In any case the alarm of fire took place simultaneously with a fight going on in the pit. It unfortunately happens that the upper portion of the theatre—the circle and galleries, or. rather series of galleries—are so arranged that there is but one main egress from them. This sole way of escape became at once blocked up. The manager appears to have raised his voice in an attempt to inform the audience that the alarm was a false one, but his efforts were ,in vain. The panicstricken crowds of mon, women, and boys surged out in such numbers that the staircase and the point of exit became one struggling mass of humanity, whose bodies lay five and six deep. By some strange fatality, a post appears to have been fixed at the point of exit, and formed an effective barrier to all egress. When, however, the police had managed to cut away this impediment with axe?, it was found necessary to extricate the bodies one by one. As these were dragged out from the struggling mass, it was found that many were already .lifeless, and had either been erushed to death or had been suffocated. Cabs were procured, and the hospitals of the centre I of the town were soon filled with dead and in- I jured. In all, it is calculated that thirty-seven were killed, whilst the number of iojured had | not been definitely ascertained. It is said that the theatre is capable of holding between four I and five thousand people. This, indeed, may j be true if the people are content to bury themselves in the recesses of semi-archways which mysteriously abound in the upper galleries, and which are generally devoted to the convenience and service of tipsy sailors and rough lads. The Coliseum of Liverpool is not noted for the select character of its audiences nor for the discrimination of the performances placed on its boards. The modes of egress from the upper portion of the house have always constituted chronic dangers, though everything wa3 evidently done in accordance with the requirements of the law and sanctioned by the proper authorities. The place was never probably intended or built for a theatre. The terrible calamity of last evening should serve as a timely warning to magistrates at this particular licensing period, and teach them that they cannot too carefully guard public safety in the matter of places of public entertainment.

(Same Paper, October 14.) According to several statements, the Colosseum at Liverpool is amply provided with means ofegrees for a large audience, and the terrible consequences of the disaster on Friday night are attributed to the fact that the people rushed in a body to one of the main entrances only, instead o£ going in different directions, ■ ■ i ■'*'■■ "ntrance unfortunately was less calculated tban~are7-~o.u»w~u»o«*»batn-"a"jreavypres~ sure of excited people. It is said that some of the doors in the various places of exit were locked, but the manager declares that they were only closed in the usual way, and might have been easily opened. He further asserts, and his statement we are told is borne out by independent witnesses, that on the alarm being raised the - people in the upper gallery crowded down to the lower gallery stairs into a passage, from which therj are also stairs communicating with the pit, which ia considerably below the level of the Btreet. Consequently there was a simultaneous rush from the gallery and the pit towards the passage leading to the main entrance in Paradise-street.

The scene must have been a very terrible one. At the bottom of the stairs there was literally piled up a heap of struggling humanity, and the battle for life raged amid the Bhrisks of the living and the groan 3 of the dying with an impetuosity akin to madness. The exit was further impeded by a pillar between the doors, and here al«o the fight was terrible. The wonder is that more people were not crushed to death, for when the panic had at length subsided, the wounded were dragged out from amongst the dead five or six deep,'