27,000 SAW FLOWERS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30064, 23 February 1963, Page 13

27,000 SAW FLOWERS

Show Closes In Rain

When the Canterbury Horticultural Society’s summer exhibition in Hagley Park closed last evening, 27,000 people had seen the show.

The last day’s visitors arrived in a steady stream from about 9 a.m. yesterday. The secretary, Mr J. C. Fraser, repoi-ted that the heavy thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon had little effect on the attendance.

No damage was done to the exhibits and the ground dried out very quickly after the rain. A few visitors got wet feet but it did not seem to worry them. Friday - night shoppers helped swell the numbets who came to see the show last evening Mr Fraser estimated that about one-third of the 10,000 who came yesterday arrived after 6 p.m. The response from the public had been more than satisfactory. About 17,000 had turned out on the first two days, he said. The weather had been very good in spite of the brief spells of rain and only a few blooms had tb be replaced. The enclosure housing the flower exhibition in Hagley Perk became a course for some fast sprinting about 3.15 p.m., as heavy rain from the storm sent visitors racing to the nearest leak-free tents. Within seconds light summer clothes were dripping water trails.

Many people took their shoes off and paddled through the pools which formed in the tent entrances and on the lawns between the tents.

Finding a dry spot was not always easy. Tents sprang leaks and the crowds milling inside were plagued by the drips.