AUCKLAND TRAFFIC DISRUPTED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29908, 23 August 1962, Page 14

AUCKLAND TRAFFIC DISRUPTED

Royal Couple Arrive At Peak Hour (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 22. Traffic delays on the route travelled by the Thai Royal party into Auckland tonight upset bus time-tables and frayed tempers. The arrival of the King and Queen was originally arranged to coincide with the peak hour between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Carefully planned traffic control was disrupted by the late departure from Hamilton and the diversion of the party through Papatoetoe and Otahuhu, instead of down the Southern Motorway as originally intended.

Traffic jams formed at almost every intersection on the route from Manurewa into the city.

The rain, which made driving difficult, did not improve the tempers of motorists as they turned and backed trying to find detour roads. One of the worst traffic jams was in the Otahuhu area. All vehicles travelling south through the township were stopped at 5 p.m. at the junction of Great South Road and Atkinson road. A queue of buses, service cars, cars and trucks stretched for about three-quarters of a mile through the township.

The queue did not move off until after 6.10 p.m. when the Royal convoy passed into Atkinson road.

Soon after 5 p.m. all traffic from the city on the southern motorway was stopped at Redoubt road and within minutes there was a doublelane of cars queued for more than a mile down the motorway.

One Otahuhu bus which left the city at 5 p.m. did not get to Otahuhu until almost 7 p.m. Buses were stopped in Ellerslie for an hour. Service cars headed for Waiuku, Drury and Pukekohe were trapped in the jam in Otahuhu.

The delay would mean overtime for drivers and a flood of complaints tomorrow from irate passengers, said a bus company officer tonight. Eight thousand people in teeming rain in the neardark provided a tremendous welcoming party for miles through Auckland's sprawling outer suburbs. Motorists in Otahuhu sounded a raucous chorus of car horns as the procession approached.

In contrast, gay church bells chimed out from the Somerville Presbyterian church over a one-mile radius.

Interior tube lights near the floor of the Royal car were switched on to enable drenched crowds to see the King and Queen. Crowds tapered as the party neared the middle of

the city—9o minutes behind schedule. Police officers, uniformed soldiers, and Sea Cadets spaced 20 yards apart, rigidly stood at attention along the final mile of the route to the Star Hotel. More police stood shoulder to shoulder to hold back a press of 700 people outside the hotel. A police dog was also on duty.

Roars of approval broke out as the King and Queen left their car, waved briefly, and entered the hotel foyer. The Royal Standard was run up. Then the chanting began. For 10 minutes men. women and children alternately handclapped, cheered and chanted: “We want the King. We want the Queen.” To fresh applause Their Majesties appeared on a first floor balcony. Little more than an hour later the Royal couple attended a civic reception and social gathering in Auckland Town Hall.