KEEP TO THE LEFT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 303, 22 December 1926, Page 10

KEEP TO THE LEFT.

A TIMELY REMINDER. THE LINE ON THE FOOTPATH. HINT TO CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS. Although there is not so much money about this year, the town is filling up rapidly for the Christmas holidays, and Queen Street is -getting as difficult to negotiate as a narrow vaterway. With the steamers, one toot with the siren means going to starboard, two means going to port, and three means going astern. Now, the Auckland Harbour Board has added-,a new one—four blasts, which means that you must get out of the way, for the author of the quadruple hoot, is unable to obey the rules of the road. During the past few days we have badly wanted a four-blast signal in Qiieen Street. In the old, muddle-along times, everybody used to leave his shopping until Christmas Eve, or within cooee of that date, but the "Shop Early!" slogan has had some effect, for the wise ones nowaI days generally get in about a week ahead. So that, while Christmas Eve, the populat old shopping night, is now comparatively little more than anocca*sion for promenade, the week before that happy day has seen Queen Street become a - steady stream of shoppers. Generally it is the-wives and "mothers who conduct the bargaining which seems inseparable from a proper appreciation of the "festive season," and the task is no light one, for, if all the presents given, in Auckland were piled in a heap, it would take some jumping over. But, though it is the women to whose lot falls the task of choosing and selecting, they don't find it the same trouble that a man would. Most women are never happier than when bargaining or turning over pretty things, so this Christmas shopping comes easy to them —in fact, they secretly like it. Mrs. Croesus, who simply has to float down town in her limousine, and is "toted" about" from shop to shop, is not much to be pitied, but the woman who has to bring the family down with her (one of them probably being in a pram) gets our pity. The astonishing part about the business, however, is that she does not want our sympathy; she thoroughly enjoys the whole racketing day, half of which would drive her husband mad. With all these people in Queen Street, it behoves them not to forget the City Council's rule of "Keep to the Left!" The shop window side of the footpath has a particularly strong attraction just now, and even the menfolk find it hard to ignore the' wonderfully dazzling array of things that seem specially designed for wheedling the •money out of a body's pocket. -At ordinary, times there is , no doubt the rule of the footpath is tolerably well observed. .Its. advocates used to say-that it was more naturabfor a than to-- the

right, when passing another, and there may be something in that contention for there is no doubt the new rule is much more generally observed than the "Keep to the Right!" which had such a long innings.. - • Certain sunburned, rather sluggish folk don't seem to have grasped the rule of the city pavement, but there is some excuse for these friends from the country, and one ,does not resent quite so much the collision which so often results from a breach. At the same time, it is well worth reminding forgetful Aucklanders and the stranger that .is within our gates that the rule does exist. The men of the traffic department no longer parade Queen Street giving reminders to transgressors,'but the painting of the white line down the middle of the footpath is still carried out with commendable regularity, and this will probably bring the idea more forcibly to the notice of our country cousins than all the swinging signs and all the talk in the, town. Whether town or country dweller, it is just as well to remember at this busy season that there is more need than ever to keep on the correct side of the thin white line.