HECTIC FAREWELL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22197, 26 August 1935, Page 19

HECTIC FAREWELL

MELBOURNE CABLE TRAMS SCENES ON LAST RUNS In a blaze of light and a pandemonium of sound, the cable trams on the North Melbourne and West Melbourne lines made a triumphal progress on their last journey after midnight on July 20. The North Melbourne lino will be electrified, and motor buses will serve West Melbourne. A procession of motor-cars followed the cable trams on their last run. Tho more daring of the participants in tho farewell stood and sat on the tops of the dummies and the trailers of the trams. Determined efforts were made to take as souvenirs everything but the iron stanchions and the ponderous grip. Tumult arose from the clanging of bells and the shouting, cheering and singing. Men on roller skates skated in and out of the glare of car headlights, a youth sipped beer as he lay on the front bumper bars of a car and a man with a concertina tried to adapt the tune of the National Anthem to an appeal for the salvation of the cable trams. The trams were almost wrecked by a section of the crowd which assembled at the North Melbourne depot. A number of youths shouted, "Wreck them" and "Pull them off the lines." Youths, men and women immediately began smashing windows, wrenching the woodwork from the sides of the cars and twisting electric light globes from their sockets. Only the intervention of tho police saved the trams.