CHRISTMAS EYE IN TOWN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17663, 27 December 1920, Page 6

CHRISTMAS EYE IN TOWN

RECORD CROWDS IN STREETS, SHOPS RUSHED BY BUYERS. SUMMER SKY AND SUNSHINE. The beautifully fine weather which ushered in the Christmas season on Thursday removed the last factor which might have prevented the city from being thronged with a record crowd for Christmas Eve. All day long both Queen Street and Karangahape Road, as the principal shopping centres, were crowded with people, who had holiday purchases still to make. As the day wore on the pressure increased. Knots of people gathered in front of shop windows were indicative of the eager buyers inside making their final purchase, Nightfall was productive of an even greater increase in the pressure. All wheeled traffic was diverted from Queen Street for the greater part of the evening. The majority of the tramcars turned at the foot of Wellesley Street or proceeded down Hobson Street to the Queen fetroet terminus of the Heme Bay line. The main city street was a moving mfss of . humanity until well after ten o'clock, when the family parties begad to think ■ of home, and by midnight it was comparatively empty. f The size and the gaiety of the crowds , were proof enough that Auckland's Christ- , mas was to be a good one. The crowded , shops showed that it was a prosperous . one. With favouring skies, and the heat tempered by winds from the south, no ' r feature required to make it a happy Christmas was wanting.