SHOPPERS FILL MAIN STREETS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 10

SHOPPERS FILL MAIN STREETS

Crowds In Wellington Last Night

RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON MOTOR TRAFFIC

For an hour or two last night all Wellington seemed to have assembled in the centre of the city. Friday, the late shopping night, usually brings a big crowd to the shops, but last night people poured into the business area in cars and trams and on foot till the main streets were packed with a slowmoving throng. Christmas shopping was on in earnest. The bigger shops, bright with the seasonal displays placed to reflect the brilliant lighting, presented a striking picture as customers crowded the space between the counters. At the doorways the people entering met those emerging, and with the lootpaths thronged with idlers as well as tiiose bent on business, there was considerable congesMotor traffic entered the city from 7.30 p.m. onward in streams divided only by the changing of the control lights, and before long a parking place was as hard to find as the proverbial needle in a haystack. Some confusion developed at times at the intersection of Jervois Quay and Wakefield and Taranaki Streets. A dozen cars from each direction would meet at the intersection, and some drivers who tried to turn right from Jervois Quay into Taranaki Street abandoned the attempt and kept straight on. At the busiest intersections in the actual shopping area traffic officers were stationed to direct both pedestrian and motor traffic. Motorists were directed out of the busiest streets, in which the only vehicular traffic consisted of trams ami a number of taxis plying for special purposes. The crowds of shoppers were thus able to move freely from one side of the street to the other; in fact, the crossings bore such continuous streams of people that motor traffic as well would have created serious confusion. The streets affected were Lambton Quav, (between Grey Street and Willis Street; Willis Street, between Lambton Quav and Manners Street; Manners Street, between Willis Street and Taranaki Street; and Cuba Street, between ■Wakefield Street and Vivian Street.

The motorists accepted the detours and co-operated readily, one traffic officer said, though a number who had not read the advertisements inquired the reason for the restriction. The period was from-6.30 p.m. to 9 p.m., by which time most of the shoppers were well away from the streets concerned. The same procedure will be adopted next Friday night, and also on December 23, the Christmas Eve late night, and December 30, the New Year’s Eve shopping night