BUSTLE IN CITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 854, 24 December 1929, Page 10

BUSTLE IN CITY

HUNDREDS OF VISITORS SWELL THRONG HEAVY TRAFFIC FOR CHRISTMAS Bustle. . . . hustling crowds, with rustling parcels . . . noise . . . honking, shrieking motor-car horns, and clanging tram-bells . . . jay walkers and a few muttered curses from motorists. . .. Auckland’s streets were their brightest and rowdiest today on the eve of Christmas. Tho big influx of visitors who have been pouring into the City the last week has swelled the presentseeking and happy throng. Walk —rather, push, down Queen Street and you will see hundreds of country visitors to the City. You can pick them easily—either emerging from a bank with a handful of notes, or his trousers are hitched half a foot too high. There is immediate recognition of the country man, too, when you receive a terrific bump that sends you staggering with hands outspread. Glaring round at tho perpertrator of this onset you find him wandering and absorbing tho marvels of the tram service. A glimpse of his bulk and you think again about speaking your mind —after all it’s Christmas and besides he has a hefty-looking fist. It’s truly a case of push, with no beg pardons.

Gathered in the centre of the footpath, clearing the hurrying crowds, reels another little group with the Christmas spirit—inside. The Post Office steps present a never - ending procession of feet, watched by a heterogenous crowd from the edge of the footpath. There one hears the names of “certs” for the Auckland Cup bandied to and fro with laboured harangue on the merits of the horses by a reader of yesterday’s Sun. Tho Christmas .racing has attracted innumerable turf followers from all parts of the island to the city. In the city hotels and boardinghouses one is greeted with “full up” and “booked out.” One of the biggest Queen Stret hostelries is reserving rooms from day to day, and many people, who were fortunate to secure rooms yesterday, were compelled to seek new accommodation this morning to make way for Christmas reservations. The hotels have been full up for days, and have been compelled to turn away hundreds who have applied for accommodation. The southern expresses have been packed with holidaymakers to the city since Friday last, the whole of the accommodation being booked. The service companies likewise have had exceptionally heavy traffic, particularly on the through trips from Napier, Gisborne, and New Plymouth. The influx of visitors has been much heavier than the departures.

Is it any wonder that Auckland is in its merriest mood today?