A COLD LAKES EXCURSION.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XVI, Issue 147, 17 April 1914, Page 1

A COLD LAKES EXCURSION.

PROHIBITED COMMUNITY TAKE THEIR PLEASURE WETLY. AN| ILL-CONDUCTED M.OB. The Invercargill correspondent of the Evening News says:,— The Railway Department tried an experiment with a. one-day excursion Ur Queenstown on Saturday. One thousand and fifty-six people from Invercargill and the townships en route wicre landed at Kingston shortly before noon, and were embarked upon the. new lake steamer Earnslaw. Tliree hours were spent at Queenstown, and Invercargill was reached on ihe return journey shortly after 10 p.m. There was an unusual amount of inebriety, and while a limited nuuii-

her of the male excursionists showed traces of excessive indulgence, there was a big section which conducted itself with reprehensible indiscretion. This was most apparent during the progress of the disembarkation at Kingston on the return journey. Long before the boat arrived at the wharf. . numbers of inebriated male excursionists commenced to make matters unpleasant by jostling women who were awaiting the lowering of the gangway. Children cried out, and here and there was an occasional cry of protest from some mother who . was being crushed in the crowd. ' The worst scene of all was enacted when the steamer bumped against the wharf at Kingston. At once tho jostling became so vigorous that it wa.s intolerable to those who were wedged against the gunwale, and men, women a.nd children sought escape by climbing over the sides. Their e,xa,mble was followed by hundreds of - others, and in hall'-a-miuute people were pouring over the sides of the steamer in hundreds. Once ashore, they found their progress Mocked by rolling stock drawn up on the sidings, and the only means of reaching tho excursion train was through the narrow avenues between the waggons a.nd the sidings. The entrances (o llie-se a,venues were soon jammed to such an extent that it wa.s impossible to get in or out of the crowd. "Women with children in their arms cried out in protest, and children who had been separated from their parents in the rush, cried for their mothers, but after all tehe rush it was found that the train accommodation wa.s fairly good, and comparatively few people had to stand. The incident was xnot a creditable one.