DISORDERLY RUSH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 January 1944, Page 4

DISORDERLY RUSH

TO BOARD RACE TRAINS AT WELLINGTON

IN SPITE OF LOUDSPEAKER

APPEALS.

AND ASSURANCES OF AMPLE ACCOMMODATION.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

A packed station and shoving crowds were the order of the day at Wellington this morning, when everybody seemed to have only one object in view —to get out to Trentham for the Wellington Racing Club’s meeting. Sixteen trains were scheduled to go between 8.50 and 1.22 p.m., some at intervals of only a few minutes. The gates to the platforms had to be kept snut, except for a few minutes at a time, during which short intervals hundreds of people would rush through, as one policeman said, “like a mob of sheep trying to get out of a pen.' Once inrough for each train ihere was a wild dash for seats. Women lost their hats and parasols, but no one fell. That was fortunate, as, on a previous occasion, when a girl did fall, the crowd walked over her and she was only saved by a policeman dragging her aside. The police managed to keep the crowds today in queues, and gave assistance in closing tne gates, but this was only accomplished by main strength. At regular intervals a loud speaker said pushing at the gates was unnecessary, as there was ample accommodation for all in the trains, but it was an unneeded voice.