ENGLAND’S HOLIDAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1931, Page 3

ENGLAND’S HOLIDAY

FINE WEATHER ENJOYED. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, August 5. Fino weather prevailed yesterday over a great part of England, and very largo August Bank Holiday crowds thronged the beaches. The seaside places and the riverside resorts proved popular, and tho heaths, downs and public parks around London were in tho possession of picnic parties. Tho road traffic during the day was exceptionally heavy, but there was a remarkable absence of serious accidents. This was due. it is believed, to a desire being shown by the drivers of motor cars and coaches to observe tho social and moral obligations suggested in the Ministry of Transport’s highway code. The railway traffic yesterday was also heavy, a large number of special trains being run to Sussex and Eent resorts from London, while Southend, where, it is stated 6000 persons slept on the beaches on Sunday night, experienced its usual invasion. No fewer than 110 holidaymakers’ trains arrived at Blackpool during tho day.

Several bathing fatalities are report' cd, including, tho drowning of three members of one family at Wittering, near the- Isle of Wight. Yesterday was the sixtieth anniversary of filo institution of the August Bank Holiday, which was first observed in 1871, after the passing of the Act in that year: STORM AND FOG FOLLOW. RUGBY, August 5. The end of the Bank' Holiday weekend coincided with a severe storm. Thunder broke over London and the South Eastern counties last night, and tho crowds who were returnjng late were, drenched by heavy rain. * There were high seas in the Channel. and in tho Thames Estuary, which, buffeted the pleasure steamers, delaying some of them for four or five hours, Tho crossing yesterday from France is declared to have been tho worst this summer. Tho storm was followed to-day by a thick fog over tho sea, in which an oil tanker of 6000 tons went ashore near Dungeness, but she was refloated this afternoon. During the fog all the shipping slowed down.