SYDNEY.

Grey River Argus, 13 February 1929, Page 8

SYDNEY.

SHARK MENACE. PEOPLE ABSORBED IN CRICKET. CHRISTCHURCH, An interesting description of a novel cricket-scoring board was given yesterday by Mr Sydney Francis Hoben on his return from a holiday in Sydney. J During the progress of the test matches the board was working outside the office of the Sydney “Evening News”, in Elizabeth Street. Opposite IS Hyde Park, where thousands of people gathered to watch, the board. It is not very large, about Bft. by 10ft„ but attached to it is a complete scoring board of the ordinary type, so that, at any moment of the game the state of the innings can immediately be grasped.

On a model wicket the two batsmen and the bowler appear as little figures running up and down. The flight of the ball is shown, and also the fall of the bails when a batsman goes out. Australia is interested in nothing but cricket during the Englishmen’s tour, says Mr Hoben. When people met, no one said, “How do you do.” It was always, “What’s the score?” Conductors on the trams going to the suburbs shouted the seor e to those coming in, and in the hotels there was no other topic of conversation. Mr Hoben was at the Prince Edward Theatre, where Mr Alfred O ’Shea was singing. When O’Shea cam e off the stage his first question was not about his performance, but the state of the test match.

Mr Hoben went down t 0 the Balmoral. Beach, near Sydney, where, tho previous day, a shark had come over the rocks into the swimming baths. The baths were bombed with high explosives to kill the shark, which eventually came up to the surface. It was then seen to be only a four-footer, so the people immediately returned to the water. It was about the same time that the boy Colin Stuart was killed by a shark. He had; been to see. the first appearance of Arne Borg, the swimmer, and filled with enthusiasm, wont down to the surf to swim. It was dusk, the most dangerous period, when the sharks come up the channels after fish. Stuart was horribly mutilated, but, despite the peril, a young man rushed into the water and dragged him away. Though all the beaches are dangerous, the crowds pay no heed to the safety areas marked out, or to the warnings against bathing at dusk, said Mr Hoben. People take terrible chances.

Sydney people are mad on swimming but they will not swim in baths. They all go to the surf and disregard the danger. After the death of the boy Stuart a party went out to catch sharks at the South Head, where there are dozens. They hooked one. but before they could haul it in another shark bit the whole body off. Enormous crowds, packed streets, high prices, and ridiculously expensive restaurants are other impressions mentioned by Mr Hoben. The famous Harbour Bridge seems to have made little progress in the last twelve months, but the builders are now starting on the arches to carry the actual bridge. Two years more should finish it. The underground railways reminded Mr Hoben of New York. The spacious city station is tiled and beautifully clean, while the wide gauge line makes smooth travelling. Sydney is now so overcrowded that there is talk of overhead railways. Skyscrapers are being built everywhere. The amount of unemployment is alarming, said Mr Hoben. Many people have never had work at all, since many young women and men search unsuccessfully for employment. Nevertheless, there is a most ostentatious display of wealth at the hotels and i theatres. !