EXCITING THEATRE INCIDENT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13361, 27 April 1911, Page 6

EXCITING THEATRE INCIDENT.

Die lar®e number of theatre-goers who filled His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, on Saturday night (says the New Zealand Herald) were prepared to witness many exciting events, these being a feature of the piece staged, but an incident in the latter part of the evening—on avalanch of water pouring from the top of the stage—was an unexpected sensation.

The play had reached an exciting point when this accident occurred. The audience were thrilled by the spectacle of a great railway smash, presented in a most realistic manner, and the curtain had just fallen on the scene when water commenced to issue from the top of the curtain. Continuing in a heavy downpour, it qnickly scattered the members of the orchestra, and began to find ns way into the orchestral stalls. For some minutes matters were unpleasant, and before the play eonld he resumed some damage had been done. The footlights could not be used again during the evening, the curtain was a good deal sodden, and the orchestra had, to read wet music in watery surroundings. Above the stage a system of sprinklers is erected, and it is thought that the curtain in falling struck and turned on one of the taps and caused the flow. The comparatively long duration of the flow was due to the fact that the caretaker of the theatre, the only person acquainted with the working of the system, was in the dress circle when the accident occurred. The incident served to emphasise the small risk of fire making any headway on the stage, as such a deluge as occurred on Saturday would quickly quench an outbreak of fire.