DUST AND SMOKE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1944, Page 4

DUST AND SMOKE

GLOOMY INFLUENCE

SOMBRE SYDNEY CHRISTMAS

O.C. SYDNEY, December 2G. Christmas, 1944, found Sydneysiders as sombre as they ever allow themselves to become. It was about the deadest festival season which anyone can remenjber. The main reason for this unusual apathy, of course, was the fact that it was the sixth wartime Christmas,, but the dust palls from the Riverina droughtland are also beginning to affect people, both physically in the form 'of minor eye, nose and throat ailments, and mentally because of their gloomy influence. Sydney's dust pall was ofiicially described as the worst to date and Christmas Day was not much better. The sun set as a reddish-yellow ball seen through the haze and the dust was still just as thick when the moon struggled through it. The bright side of it is that now the mass of city dwellers have awakened to what is happening to the country, they may at last insist on something being done to save our farming lands. Smoke from bush fires in the outer suburbs also shrouded the metropolitan area all Sunday. At Narrabeen, seaside resort north of Manly, some families who were burnt out lost all they possessed, including the Christmas gifts which they had just bought for their children. No Railway Rush There was no railway rush this year, probably owing to a hold-up on the return trip before it was announced that :he miners' leaders had reversed their decision and were now ordering miners to cut short their holidays, as instructed by the Commonwealth Government, oil promise of a thorough inquiry into the industry by a Royal Commission, headed by Mr. Justice Davidson, of the New South Wales Supreme Court Bench. There was, however, the worst hold-up in history at Peat's Ferry, where the road to the North Coast holiday resorts crosses the Hawkesbury River. The two large vehicular punts are away on war service and a skeleton service is being maintained by a small craft which can carry enly 12 cars. The jamb started on Friday afternoon, and the last of the holiday cars were not cleared until 5 a.m. on Christmas Day. At times the queue of cars was several miles long. They were patrolled by police, who restrained anyone inclined to cut in ahead of his place,,and let through only emergency cSses, while the punt ran 24 hours a day trying to catch up with traffic, three skippers, working on in eight-hour shifts. Some motorists had to wait 20 hours in the queue before they could get on to the punt. They had food supplies with them, held community concerts and at night boiled the billy round camp fires. Such scenes should not be seen again, for the road traffic bridge across the river should be opened this year. In the struggle for beer at the end of last week a real fight developed at one suburban hotel which was supplying regular customers with two bottles. One man, who was refused and saw others whom he declared were strangers being served, hopped over the counter and helped himself. That started it. Others followed him and soon a hearty brawl was going—until police arrived and stopped it. The first man meanwhile had quietly slepped out a back door with his beer—and he didn't pay for it either!