Perfect Easter Weather Draws Large Crowds to Attractions in Sydney

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26731, 29 March 1948, Page 5

Perfect Easter Weather Draws Large Crowds to Attractions in Sydney

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. SYDNEY, Mar. 28. In perfect weather, all Sydney was outdoors yesterday. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people left the city by train on Friday and Saturday for the Easter holidays, but that the dual attractions of the Royal Easter Show and Randwick racing drew many thousands into the city. The attendance at the show yesterday was 204,153, which, though short of last year’s Easter Saturday record of 259,829, was difficult enough to handle. During the early afternoon, when the temperature was 85 degrees, people were collapsing at the rate of one per minute. The attendance at Randwick was 91,500, only 700 short of the record for the course.

More than 20,000 people attended the Australian surf lifesaving championships which were held at Manly in a difficult dumping surf. One life-saver suffered a probable fractured skull and another a broken arm and three broken ribs as the result of spectacular surfboat crashes. The carnival concluded dramatically when six men, comprising the crew of a surfboat competing in darkness in the championship final, were washed half a mile out to sea. Their plight was not known until their swamped boat was thrown up on the beach. While car lights played on the surf other contestants put to sea in an attempt to locate the missing men. They were found by the Freshwater boat, which had previously won the championship.