BIGBUSINESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 87, 9 October 1943, Page 8

BIGBUSINESS

SKATES IN DEMAND

SPORTS CENTRE PROGRESS

Patriotic skating is going high, almost too high for the management, for attendances have swamped the stock of skates and when the evening sessions open they swamp the ticket box—they don't queue up, they stand up and push. • -Replacements and spare parts are giving cause for worry. The rink opened with about 600 pairs of skates and a-fair range of spare parts, but this was. civilian stock, including women's and children's skates. When the rush is on they carry hefty servicemen, and the axles and wheels will not take it. The " manager consequently gets through his job of management and then turns to the workshop; it is hard gbing. There are possibly some additidnal small stocks in other parts of the country, but any considerable stocks of parts will have to' be brought in from outside. There has "been some loss of skafes, which have disapoeared in the rush, and one or two skaters, needing the freedom ot more wide open spaces, have skated clear out of the rink. One Navy man did Manners Street with great enthusiasm, but the M.P.s, as usual, spoiled

■; Still the streets are filled with men. On one recent weekend Wellington was full as never before, and the pressure upon hostel and shakedown space was so great that Army paliasses had-to toe set out among timber and other gear in the half-finished Sports Centre in the old tramway powerhouse. ■The Sports Centre will be taking ■workable shape within two or three weeks; first-rate progress is being made. It is turning out to be a more promising job than was anticipated by its most consistent advocates. It is the wish of the American Red Cross to rUh the centre, for the entertainment o£>all the Services, on a no-charge and strictly no-profit basis; that is, all in the' Services will be the guests of the American Red Cross. Shortly now, also, the Town Hall arid Concert Chamber will be back in use, and in one way and smother the entertainment problem will.be considerably eased. -What still does give a lot of concern, however, is the continuance of dancing in a number of unlicensed halls which haye-been officially described as offering grave dangers in case of fire or panic,, because of their inadequate emergency exits. Had it not been that the demand for dance', floor space has been so great and the shortage of floor space made worse- by the loss of the Town Hall for so long, it is not conceivable that large '-. gatherings of members of the Services and their partners in such premises would have been countenanced by either the Patriotic Committee'or. the City Council, or by the Service authorities, whose attitude has been one of reluctant non-refusal, rather than of approval. The private and Service dance hall position has been that Wellington has taken a chance with some halls which have quite inadequate means of exit, and has so far got away with it, but two official -reports have stated bluntly that, the risks are grave. The chance is still being taken.