TOWN HALL DEFECTS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3316, 21 October 1919, Page 5

TOWN HALL DEFECTS.

(To the Editor) ‘sir,-,_—l attended a crowded perform- . ance on Saturday night in the Town ' Hall; and was struck with two things. \ k Firstly, the totally inadequate provision there is for handling a. crowd of. any size. Tickets are sold atone. little pigeolh-hole window in the middle of the vestibule, to- which the buyers crush and press from all ‘.-Isid.‘e§;l lad; once. Surely a simple. railing, such as you see in any railway ticket ofiice would Ensure an orderly stream of buyerg «all going in the :same direction. Then, sir, about half of those who crowded in were holders of reserved ‘ tickets; what is the objection to saving floor space by sending all those ‘in by .a side door? ' The other thing I noticed is what a very dtatngerous place the Town Hall: would be in the event of a panic, say, of fire or earthquake. There are four ‘ exits from the hall, but the ordinary person knows of only two, and in a panic makes straight for one-—the one he came in by. As to the. emergency '_ exits, may I ask if they are ‘ever un- .! locked, .even during a performance? I A know that -the side door on Kuku Street 3 ‘ would only half open ‘on Sdturday I night. IQ; it anyone ’s business, sir, to i see that it and every other door fully opens? So much for downstairs; but upstairs is still worse.‘ The"Ealiil exit _ from the gallery leads down a stair? Way (and a narrow one withia. double turn in it), that discharges at right angles into the vestibule, which i_s already a surging escaping mass of humanity.. No, sir, I venture to assert that the state of affairs that exists at our Town Hall is such. that in no other place in New Zcaland would a license be granted to it; and the remedies I , "have suggested are quite siniple; encourage‘ all the people to make use of all the exits. ‘ e ‘ ‘ I

To showtthat I am not- the only holder of these view.s,v may I ask you to find space for an extract-from bylaws‘ which "exist in «at least one other tow’n?—"-M-‘—l am, ‘etc.‘, * I ~ ‘ - V E. S. lOAPEL