RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31540, 30 November 1967, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

NOSTALGIA

One of the penalties of advancing age is the belief one’s grey hairs engenders among others that anything ancient must be of interest So it was that a friend came in the other day with a picture postcard of Colombo Street—the bottleneck taken many years ago. There is no date on the card, or on the note written on the back. But the Bank of New Zealand is there, small and sombre. A double decker tram is emerging from High Street as stately as a galleon. The gentlemen seen going about their business are dressed

almost as today—narrow trousers, thin ties. But the only lady in the picture, who is riding a bicycle in a northerly direction in a distinctively genteel sort of way, is wearing a skirt which would make a dozen of the present variety. Nearly all the buildings in the picture Jbave long since gone. But the most striking feature of the photograph is the number of poles. In the foreground, where Cathedral Square meets Colombo Street, there are tram lines all over the place, and right down Colombo street, not far off

road-centre, are the poles which carried the tram lines. It seems to us today that there are traffic hazards in the city. But what would it have been like in Colombo Street, after the hotels had closed? The space between the tram line going south, and the poles, is small indeed. One shudders to think of the confusion a horse and dray, a tram-car, a couple of penny-farthing bicycles and a four-in-hand could effect round one of those poles. It is not easy for the younger generation to imagine such a scene; but the language would be familiar. A