TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 211, 11 September 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

| [(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, August 6. BANK HOLIDAYS.

' The Diamond Jubilee Year Avill be memorable amongst other things for its fine bank holidays, all four of the dates sacred to the feast of St. Lubbock having been blessed Avith splendid weather. Monday last Avas the liottest day of this gorgeous summer, and in consequence record crowds of dry and dewy—not to say perspiring —trippers thronged every seaside resort Avithin four hours' journey of the metropolis. Walking through the iWest End squares in the cool of that evening I met scarcely a soul. The •blinds were doAvn in the great houses and the streets deserted. For quite Jhalf a mile the only signs of lifeAvere a forlorn cab Avith the driver drunk inside and an immoral cat blinking .along Ada Avails and areas towards some unholy orgie on the tiles. And yet the people had not all gone out of town. A feAV of them (sixty thousand odd) passed the turnstiles at the Eaiiscourt Exhibition.thirty thousand were at the Oval, forty-five thousand rat Hurst Park races, and fifty-nine thousand odd on Hampstead Heath. .The Crystal Palace had one of the .worst bank holidays it has ever J.noAvn, and the caterers lost heavily. .The average attendance at Sydenham on such occasions is 60.000, and as .anany as 80,000 have been known to ./turn up. On Monday the numbers Hell to 44,772. On the other hand, the t-xush to Epping Forest totalled 5127,776.