CROWDED CARS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 18, 21 January 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

CROWDED CARS

(To the Editor. 1 Kir,—Will you kindly insert in next issue the following facts, viz.:—On Saturday, 17th inst., I saw a lady of my acquaintance standing in the street opposite the Thames Hotel with her portmanteau at 10.20 p.m., vainly attempting to secure a seat in a Newmarket electric tram car. Three cars passed partly full, but the conductors declined to 'iake any notice of our request to stop. We then proceeded to the usual stopping place near to the railway station, and found that every car had been packed with passengers further up Queenstreet before reaching- that spot up to 10.50 p.m. Finding it hopeless to secure a seat, I stored the lady's portmanteau- with an obliging shopkeeper and trudged home in the midst of the rain. The great difficulty, especially at night, is to distinguish the destination of the cars, as the paper indicating this, in some instances, had been obliterated or blown away with the wind and rain. The days of the omnibus acuiornariod-ation. -were surely better than this, and the conductors were always civil and attentive when called upon to pick up a passenger.—l am, etc, -.WM. BRUCE.