200,000 PEOPLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23619, 1 April 1940, Page 8

200,000 PEOPLE

VAST CROWDS ASSEMBLE HANDLING OF TRAFFIC OUTSTANDING efficiency ABSENCE OF CONGESTION Estimated to have used 25,000 motorcars and brought into the city by 200 tramcars, dozens of buses and many special trains, the crowd which witnesscd tho funeral of the late Prime Minister stretched in an unbroken line along the whole of the route; from the Auckland "railway station' to Bastion Point. The total number was placed at 200,000. While very large masses of people congregated around the open space in front of the railway station arid occupied points of vantage on tho surrounding high ground, others waited for the procession in dense numbers at such places as lower Queen Street, Karangahape Road, Grafton Bridge, Park Road and Newmarket. Tho largest gathering of people, however, was assembled around the site of the grave. Hero the crowd was at least 50,000. Assembly Begins Early t Motor-cars began to gather at Bastion Point as early as 9.30 a.m. An hour later people wore collecting on the slopes below Anzac Avenue, where they had an unparalleled view of the assembly point of the funeral, while hundreds more took up positions on the harbour side of Mount Hobson. The arrangements made proved adequate for the handling of this record crowd and at no stage was there any congestion. Although the crowds were assembling over a period of some hours, their dispersal at the conclusion of tho funeral, when all desired to move at once, was accomplished with a minimum of delay. This satisfactory handling of the unprecedented crowd was tho result of the competent plans made beforehand by the Superintendent of Police, Mr. J. Cummings, and the Superintendent of Traffic, Mr. C. Bland, who had the ready co-operation of the Transport Department, the Automobile Association (Auckland) and the traffic staffs of other Auckland local bodies. The staffs assisting in this control comprised 180 officers. Thousands of Cars -at Orakei Waiting only until the last of the cortege had moved from the vicinity of the railway station, many of the thousands of people in Beach Road and Anzac Avenue hastened to other points along the route. The same movement was noticeable in Queen Street, and by the time the procession had reached Newmarket traffic in the city had returned to practically normal. For some hours before the arrival of the funeral at Orakei there had been a steady stream of private cars arriving from all parts of Auckland as well as from more distant localities. These were accommodated in a. special parking area under the control of officers of the Automobile Association. There were.over 4000 cars in this area alone. At the conclusion of the funeral ceremony these cars were held until the official cars had left, and thereafter there was an orderly despatch of vehicles which prevented congestion and confusion. Waterfront Traffic As was to be expected., a very largenumber of those who attended the ceremony at Bastion Point journeyed by way of the Waterfront Road. For some distance on each side of the point the road was lined on both sides by parked motor-cars. In addition "about 7000 people were carried to the point by a specially-augmented service of buses. A fleet of 47 buses' was employed, a number of these being vehicles drawn from other routes. The real test of this service came when tbe crowds streamed down from the burial ground. There was naturally, some difficulty in coping with this rush, but up to 5 p.m. 1000 people had been transported to the city, while by six o'clock a further 5000 had been carried, leaving about 1000 to be taken after that. There was a steady stream of people walking back to the city along the Waterfront Road in the late afternoon. * Quick Return to Normal In addition to those who thronged the streets, there were many hundreds who watched the funeral from buildings overlooking the route, and from their houses and gardens in the Residential areas. It was noticed that very few people took up positions on verandah rool's, official warnings against the danger of this practice having apparently been heeded.

The excellence of the traffic arrangements was seen in the faqt that not only was the vast gathering at Bastion Point moved within an hour of the sounding of the Last Post, but by 5.45 p.m. the traffic in Queen Street and other main traffic arteries was practically back to normal.

An outstanding feature of a day of abnormal traffic was that no accident of a serious nature was reported.