SYDNEY AT HOLIDAY TIME.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 8 January 1908, Page 3

SYDNEY AT HOLIDAY TIME.

- SPINES IN THE CITY. TREMENDOUS POSTAL WORK.

SYDNEY, Dec. 28. M See it, BUI! Dead 'cute, isn't Bill nodded assent. ...,., .They were straw-hatted, able-booiea young men, who smoked cigarettes; :and the article they gased on was sonply a toy railway tram .running on .a circular toy track in a city shop window crammed with Christmas presents. Yet to see it, they had jostled aside not only women and children, but men older than themselves. Who says Christmas is a festival for children P Everywhere was the roar or the Christmas Eve traffic, for Sydney at the end of a well-to-do year is a bright, bustling city indeed. The holiday-makers, the people of the merry laughter, promenaded the narrow streets, and thronged into the huge shops for the Christmas marketing, and swarmed into the cool shade of the cafes for afternoon tea, refreshing in the summer heat. Above their merry gossip and laughter were the clatter of horses' hoofs, the tooting of motor-car horns, . and overwhelming everything the aggressive whirr of the electric tramcars, dashing themselves up the Btreet in a oneminute service to catch the excursion % trains running out of the central railway station. . , •In the shops men in their shirtsleeves and breathless young women spread in brave array before their customers' eyes the fancy silks, and the taffetas and voiles, arid Louisennes, and chiffons, and the rest of the dainty fabrics. In the toy stores, parents spent the happiest hour of the year in choosing the gifts for the stockings, and dear httle children screamed in their ;glee over the wonderful mechanical devices that the toymakers ofVto-day are puting upon the world's markets. But the busiest places of all were the cash departments.of the big stores. One huge business place in Sydney, it La estimated, took between £10,000 and £20,000 on. Christmas Eve, and the estimate is not by any means unlikely, for the sum of £10,000 would mean only an average of £10 each to the 1000 assistants. Try to imagine, then, what the task of receiving an immense volume of money like this in 12: hours or., so must have been. The cash railways running all over the place were firing their messages in at the department all day like the unceasing rattle o£ musketry. All these, activities i- illustrated the one phase of the Christmas rejoicings. There was another. The grey-haired, weather-beaten old man,, who stood at a'street corner with a trayful of toys, and proclaimed their 1 merits to the passers-by in a cracked voice, represented another phase. So did the middle-aged man, with faded face and tattered hat, who made his way into a hotel to try to dispose of a few magazines. Perhaps Bill and his mate bought from these "men, and helped them to earn a few shillings for Christmas; but how on earth is existence made up for the rest of the year by the poor creatures? " Here you are! A brass band for a penny!" called the old man, dismally, as he pulled the strings which worked th© arms of a jocose figure with a pair of cymbals. Children stopped to gaze at him with idle curiosity, and now and then a mother passed who bought one of the toys for the child clinging to her skirts. In his welcome or the buyer, the poor old fellow allowed himself to make a joke, Trat it was all very pathetic—nay,» tragic. Not far off, a blind woman, a pitifully-isolated figure as* the merriment and laughter swept by, sang in

a shrill key to coax pence from the pockets of those who passed. Who says Christinas is a festival for children f . Quite close to this spot, in a jeweller's shop, a.man bought a £25 ring for his-wifcw It Was a brilliant ana showy Christmas present, and the jeweller let him have it for £24 . The flower-sellers outside the General Post Office did a brisk trade all day, and far into the night. The Christmas lilies, and the pretty little pink flowers of the Christmas bush, made an extremely attractive display at this quarter, where the flowers in season are always beautifying the streets. A great traffic was done in bouquets and button-holes — and though there may have been costlier presents, thore were none more, beautiWhile the crowd, fashionably dressed and in great, good humour, "did the block," there was another section of the community almost worried out of existence in,the big Post Office Building in Martin Place. Thiis section comprised the Post Office employees, who have ne>ver had such a Christmas. They had to work like Trojans to cope with the rush, of picture post-cards, ror this specimen of art is completely taking the place of the Christmas card ' as- a means of conveying the greetings of the season. It is estimated that the postal officials in Sydney handled half a million picture' . post-cards this Christmas. To add 'to their troubles, an unusually heavy mail from New Zealand, 77 bags for Sydney, arrived oh Christmas Eve, and on Christmas morning their joy was complete when an English mail of large dimensions came to hand. The full staff had to come down on Christmas Day, and tackle work at seven o'clock, and keep [ at. it till ,10 at night, and then a special staff came on and continued work until the hour of delivery on Boxing Day. Even then, the work fell into arrears. Cards which were posted in the city on Monday, their destination the suburbs, were not delivered until Thursday (Boxing Day). As a matter of fact, the Post Office staff is undermanned; and it is doubtful, if more men were employed, whether there would, be room for them to do their work, under the conditions of congestion at present prevailing in the Postal Department in Sydney. In. the despatch room there are 145 men kept going, and yet the accommodation is no better than it was 25 years ago. The enormous rush of the holiday season is further illustrated by the fact that whilst 2000 parcels are handled every day during the remainder of the year, the number went up last week to 4000 or 5000 a day. - Of the two machines used in the i3tamping_of the letters and cards, it is interesting to New Zealanders to know that one was from the Dominion, and the other from America; and. the New Zealand machine did! the better work, averaging 600-a minute. You will agree that we make our postal employees work at Christmas, and so, also, the telephone girls are kept extremely busy, v Their nervewracking duties are performed at their highest streiss on Christmas Eve, when people rang each other up to express hopes for a Happy Christmas, or order the household groceries.