FINE WEATHER EXPERIENCED

Otago Witness, Issue 3743, 8 December 1925, Page 29

FINE WEATHER EXPERIENCED

Tlie Exhibition officials were happy on Saturday night, for the turnstiles had registered the largest crowd since opening day, the number that passed through being 30,053.

Though the morning was dull the cleared in the afternoon, and as the day wore on the crowds increased noticeably. In every pavilion, court and amusement place young and old gathered in hundreds, and in the Grand Court thousands listened in the afternoon and evening to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlander’s Band. In its prevailing spirit of joyousness Saturday was rivalled only by the opening day. The crowd seemed to be out to enjoy itself, and the removal of the previous weather discomforts left the people free to pursue the one pleasure. During the afternoon especially the children were noticeable. Thousands of them wandered through the Exhibition, alone or with their parents, according to their age, and cautious parents were kept busy preventing an over-consumption of ice-cream, candy floss, waffles and other tit-bits so dear to youthful palates. The fine after-.* noon and evening tempted a visit from parents of babies, and these were to be seen everywhere in prams and go-carts. As a consequence of the large number of children in the crowds the Exhibition police station was kept busy finding owners for straying little ones who sat tearfully in the watch-house, obviously nervous in the presence of the policeman and wondering some of them if the often used threat of gaol for childish misdemeanours was really about to be experienced. The constables on dutyin the Exhibition are always watchful for straying children, and parents who lose their offsprings in the crowds are advised that the most likely place to find them is at the police station at the gates.

The carelessness, of some parents, or their absorption in the exhibits, gives cause for some wonder. One constable who found a crying child in the Amusement Park adopted a novel and effective method of finding its parent. He said that he “just stood still and waited until he saw a man rushing around as if he had lost something.” His plan succeeded because it was the child’s father.