DANCERS' PREDICAMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22687, 27 March 1937, Page 12

DANCERS' PREDICAMENT

ACCOMMODATION APPEAL OVERWHELMING RESPONSE [by telegraph —OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON, Friday With an almost embarrassing eagerness Wellington householders hastened to-night to uphold New Zealand's reputation for hospitality. Responding to an urgent radio appeal to provide week-end accommodation for members of the Pussian ballet they found lodgings for 50 of the company who had been unable to secure rooms in hotels or boarding houses. The company reached Wellington by train early this afternoon. More than half of its number found quarters, but 50 were still homeless by nightfall. An unusual number of Easter attractions had taxed the capacity of Wellington's holiday accommodation and rooms in city hotels and boarding houses were not to bo had.

Throughout the afternoon Mr. Claude Kingston and Mr. John Farrell, of J. C. Williamson, Limited, searched for suitable board and lodgings, and a few rooms were, found, but by the evening the supply had been exhausted. The Pail way Department had been informed of the position, and arrangements had been made as a last resort to billet the 50 homeless members in the company's special train. A radio appeal was put through from 2YA. The response was so overwhelming that Mr. Kingston's hardest task was not to place his large family, but to send messages to disappointed hosts and to explain that ho could take advantage of only a few of tho offers which poured in.