COMMONWEALTH NOTES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143771, 20 April 1912, Page 7

COMMONWEALTH NOTES.

(By F.H.)

RECORDS SHATTERED. This is an epoch of records. If the Commonwealth, and more particularly New South Wales, does not curb itself somewhat it will run clean away. Already the traces are strained and in danger of snapping. Wages are ever on the up-grade; hours of labour steadily shortening. "Whore 5s was spent on recreation a few years ago, 10s is now of no consequence. On Easter Monday thousands were stranded at pleasure resorts some miles from town, vehicles, trams and motor cars were ridiculously inadequate to convey' the pleasure seekers aud instead of a 2s fare, 4s and 5s was readily parted with. It was a harvest for some. Easter is always a busy time with the Railway Department, on account of the large influx of country visitors to the show, which by the way eclipses all else in the way of attractions in the Southern Hemisphere. On Good Friday there passed through the turnstiles 95,000 people, on Saturday 51,000, and Easter Monday 77,000, and proportionately on other days prior and after the Easter week-end. The weather was so full of balm aud so inviting that it was really the 'best time of the year for outings; a temperature not unlike New Zealand midsummer, minus the wind and dust. The seaside resorts were taxed, and at Manly the ocean beach presenter! a scene resembling a swarm of bees from morning till night, and other favourite watering places were of a like nature, but this by the way. AVhatl was going to say was that the Railway Department at the Central Railway Station on Thursday, prior to Good Friday, became absolutely disorganised, and the greatest confusion prevailed. Guards and porters were rushing about trying to do a lot, bur succeeded in nothing. Timetables had to be suspended, and the trains run as best they could, in and out of the 16 platforms. Of course, there was a record traffic and people’ off to the mountains and to the north and south coasts in tens of thousands, and just as many were flocking into the city froth the country, so it was not surprising that the heads of the department completely lost themselves. Directly a tram backed in for outward freight, people rushed it frantically, swarming into the long corridor carriages at both ends, and jumping through the windows, heedless of consequence, only to find that the übiquitous guard came rushing pell mall down the platform, “This train cancelled, transfer to platform 5. Those who had ears to hear garnered enough curses and blasphemies to fit them for the fo’c’sle of a third-rate sailing ship, with a bit to spare, and there were many who qualified. The Chief Commissioner was away, ol course, and his two assistants sat in the upper chamber a mile away from the scene reading dispatches from those in charge of operations and giving orders, which, by the time they reached the station officials, were so late as to bo completely unworkable, and so confusion worse confounded prevailed. It is hard for people not acquainted with Sydney and its magnitude to realise what a huge crowd is, particularly when .everything becomes disor*gamsed, but some idea may be gathered trom the fact that from noon on Thursday to midnight, the same day no less than 450 trams arrived ami lett the Sydney station, each with ten long corridor carriages, longer considesrably than those in use in New Zealand. Included amongst these were 14 excursion trains. The supply oi coinages, however, was quite inadequate, notwithstanding that 130 more wore iu use than last Easter and 150 more are now under construction. '1 rams, too, although better managed, eclipsed all previous records/- On Good i'rulay and Easter Monday over a million lares were collected each day. It is gratifying to learn that notwithstanding the enormous traffic of Easter, not a single death from accident either on the railway or trams was recorded, and the people arrived homo, if late, they got there in one whole mass of anatomy, perhaps dishevelled aud scarred, but they had their day’s'outing and what cared thev for else ? One humorous item was that tlio Premier was in a suburban train on Thursday night and billed to speak at 8 p.m., but lua train arrived 21 hours late, doing the journer of 8 miles in 3 hours, so his oration was lost. As for accommodation, that was altogether impossible. Sir Arthur Guinness, Speaker of your House, now in Sydney, failed to get a pillow whereon to rest his weary head, and had to go to Manly where a shake-down was found in some place or other, not before known to the public, but now a fashionable hostelry. Such is fume! Thousands of people who went to the Mountains on Thursday were unable to get accommodation for the week-end, and special trains had to bo put on to bring them homo; they got back sectional .trains on Good Friday mornnig. Better had the Railway Department allowed the carriages to remain on the Mountains and the passengers sleep in them, for they would then not have had their holiday spoiled. The question is, what is it all coming to? We are completely outgrowing ourselves. The Government is sending to England for a thousand artisans for their own exclusive use in erecting homes for the increase of population. Any man with two hands can get work, and 12s a day, at that, and still the cry is more labour, but there is a certain amount of distress as there always will be in a large city, no matter how prosperous the community on the whole may he. For instance, Wirth Bros., of circus fame, gave a free breakfast on Good Friday to some 12,000 men; women and children. Nevertheless, Australia is booming in every direction, but there is a fly in the ointment; drought conditions prevail in the country, and the cry is for rain. If it fails to come speedily the grain crops next season will fail, for,, the ploughing time is at hand, and nothing can be done owing to the hardness of the soil. Seasonable weather has prevailed on the coast, and the dairying industry is flourishing.