EASTER HOLIDAYS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27009, 8 April 1953, Page 8

EASTER HOLIDAYS

POpR WEATHER FOR LAST DAY PICTURE THEATRES WELL PATRONISED While many Christchurch workers had a holiday yesterday those whose duties took them back to their offices and factories consoled themselves with the reflection that it would have been a poor day for a holiday. Overcast skies early in the morning fulfilled their threat before noon and the afternoon was wet and cold, amply justifying th© “cloudy with occasional rain” forecast by the Meteorological Office on Monday evening. Most of the Easter sports functions in Christchurch had finished, but play in one major fixture, the Easter lawn tennis tournament at Wilding Park, had to be abandoned. Post-section play in the Easter fours bowls tournament was postponed. Racehorses and racegoers are made of sterner stuff than tennis players, and the second day of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Easter meeting at Riccarton proceeded according to schedule. Attendance at this meeting apparently suffered from the weather, to judge from the conversation of two women overheard in a bus. “By the time you’ve paid to get out there, paid to get in’ and paid for your pie or afternoon tea, there’s no change from ten bob,” one woman said. “On a day like this I’d rather sit at home and listen to the races over the radio.”

Picture theatres were well patronised, both with adults on holiday and schoolchildren, who will return to their halls of learning today. Hotel bars did a brisk trade later in the afternoon.

Hereford street was one of the quietest streets in the centre of the city yesterday. The parking spaces in the street usually occupied by the cars of lawyers, accountants, sharebrokers, bankers. and the staffs of their offices were available for shoppers sni picture-goers. Retailers usually find the Tuesday after Easter a fairly busy day, when many workers take the opportunity, before returning to work

later in the week, of doing some shopping, but the volume of sales yesterday was affected by the weather.

Because of the closing of the City Council offices and many of the Hereford street offices and other business premises such as wholesale establishments. those having business with them had to put it off. A slightly casual approach to work was discernible in many offices, where a radio in the background attracted attention every 40 minutes or so.