TRAM-PASSENGERS' MANNERS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21438, 2 April 1935, Page 7

TRAM-PASSENGERS' MANNERS

TO TIUJ EMTOK 0» THK ¥RI3S. * Sir,—l wish to remark on the ignorance, of some of the Christchurch people who ride on the trams. I travel regularly, morning and night, on the Papanui and Richmond lines, and it is very rarely that I am able to sit down; not that I grudge it. A great number of people travel on the Papanui trams; but why is it that, when a schoolgirl stands up and offer;; her seat to some standing passenger, they shake their heads and say, "Oh, it is quite all right, you take it!" Some people don't seem to realise that schoolgirls are not allowed to keep their seats when older people are standing. Sometimes one may stand the whole journey while people stand at the rear end of the tram, and just give a little wan smile now and then; but they do not take the seat offered them. Then one feels a gentle tug at one's sleeve, and some young lady tells one to take the seat. What if one did? People would immediately say, "Look, fancy a schoolgirl keeping her seat, while all these people are standing;" This is how many unkind remarks are made about the manners of girls of different schools; but if people would only scan their own manners first, they would very quickly see who was at fault. 1 do not say all people are like those mentioned above, but in the main they are, and they do not seem to correct themselves. I hope in future that fewer people will ignore seats which are offered them. My reason ior writing this letter is" to ask why should schoolgirls' manners suffer through the ignorance of some people?— Yours, etc., SCHOOLGIRL. March 30, 1935.