NEW YEARS EYE AT GREYMOUTH

Press, Issue 22599, 3 January 1939, Page 5

NEW YEARS EYE AT GREYMOUTH

SHOPS AND HOTELS WELL PATRONISED

WARM DAY YESTERDAY

New Year's Eve was observed at Greymouth in traditional West Coast fashion.

The town was thronged with holiday makers and, as on Christmas Eve, festive groups of young people paraded the streets until a late hour. When midnight chimed, numbers here and there joined hands and sang lustily “Auld Lang Syne,” and 1939 was greeted with bursts of cheering. Hundreds travelled from all-parts of the West Coast to Greymouth on Saturday for the Greymouth Jockey Club’s mid-summer meeting, and on New Year’s Eve accommodation at all the hotels was booked out. Shops did good business, and a few of the larger firms did even better business than on Christmas Eve. There was a brisk traffic through the town of cars on Sunday and on Monday. In spite of the big influx of visitors to the town on New Year’s Eve, and the increase of traffic, no mishaps of a serious nature were reported. The weather on New Year’s Day and again yesterday left nothing to be desired, being fine and very warm. Yesterday was one of the warmest days for many months.

Mr F. B. Wright, of Christchurch, who is on a visit to Greymouth, will leave soon for the glaciers of South Westland.

Mr D. McCaskill, inspector of schools at Wellington, is on a visit to the West Coast.