Missing circus

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 16

Missing circus

Sir, —For a week local shops displayed notices inviting people to see Ridgeways Circus on Saturday, November 18, in the Cheviot Domain. On that day, local children and parents turned out in large numbers, some travelling as far as 30 miles, only to find no sign of the circus nor any explanation from Ridgeways. Today your phper states that the circus encountered difficulties crossing a bridge on the West Coast on November 20, so quite obviously they had no intention of being here to present this performance. The disappointment for some of these children must have been great, as many of them get no opportunity to travel further afield for this type of entertainment. Since this is the second time in some five years that this had happened any resulting loss of patronage and therefore profit can only be blamed on their own inconsiderate selves.—Yours, etc.. (Mrs) G. R. HIATT. Cheviot, November 24, 1972. [Mr Charles Ridgeway, proprietor of Ridgeway’s Circus, replies: “We had every intention of visiting Cheviot; otherwise we would not have gone to the expense of sending our advance agent to the town and distributing posters. We were to have crossed to the North Island by ferry about December I, but then we found we could not get on the ferry until about December 14 or 15. This left us with about eight or nine days to fill in. We had intended going to Hawarden, then to Cheviot, Kaikoura, Blenheim, and Picton, but when we found we could not get aboard the ferry, instead of going to Cheviot we went to the West Coast to fill in the extra days. Our advance booking agent was to have advised the Cheviot School that the circus would not be going to Cheviot, and it would now appear that this was not done.”]