Cinematograph Panic Fatality.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 15, 13 October 1909, Page 10

Cinematograph Panic Fatality.

A sudden, needless cry of “Fire!’’ at a cinematograph entertainment at Portsmouth threw 200 children into such a terrible panic that one of them was crushed to death in the rush to escape. Undoubtedly the death-roll would have been high but for the splendid presence of mind of a cornet player in the orchestra, who quieted the grown-up members of the audience by playing a popular song. The entertainment was being given in the Victoria Hall, which is rented for the purpose by Messrs. E. and H. Andrews. About 200 children, admitted at one penny each, occupied the gallery, the elder portion of the audience being seated in the hall below. The second picture had just been thrown on the screen when the electric wire fused, causing the cinematograph film to snap and ignite. The operator at once closed his fireproof box and put out the flames with a bucket of water and a blanket, kept close at hand for the purpose. But a woman in the audience raised a cry of “Fire!” For a few moments it seemed as if everyone in the hall was going to rush for the doors, but a cornet soloist in the orchestra had the presence of mind to play the opening strains of the popular song, “Oh! oh! Antonio.” It set the audience singing, and saved a panic downstairs. Upstairs, however, the 200 children at the word “Fire” made a united rush to the door, despite the efforts of the attendants. The sudden opening of the doors, letting in a blaze of light, only increased their terror, for they seemed to ■think it a reflection of flames behind them. Their shrieks drowned the song which was being sung below. To add to their terror, the banister guarding the stairway which led from the gallery broke away under the strain of the mass of struggling children, and dozens of them fell headlong on the heads of those below. The cries of the children reached the ears of the spectators at a cricket match on the United Service Officers’ ground opposite. Colonel Turner and Mr. Charles Bruere ran into the hall, and with Stoker W. Oakley, of the Revenge, pulled about fifty children out of the screaming group. In about a quarter of an hour the hall was clear, the elder members of the audience having filed out quietly. Most of the children revived when they got into the open air again, but when the corridor was cleared the dead body of a little boy was found. He was John Henry Graham, of Landport, aged eleven. Eight children in all were sent to the hospital, two—a boy named Harold Windham and a girl named Lilian Nightingale—being detained.

Parliament reminded him of a football ground. Members are like players, and the Speaker is the referee. The ball is generally some bill, and both sides are kicking at it. In the scrummage between two parties feeling runs high, as in football, yet there is no ill-feeling among the Parliamentary scrummagers. To a young member this is curious—the absence of bitterness with so much conflict.— Mr R. A. Wright, M.P. Land is only worth anything to a State ■when it is producing. What is Auckland drawing from her millions of idle acres Not a sack of potatoes a year. Think of 30 million acres in this Dominion adding nothing to its exports, and think of the huge money loss the locking up of these lands represents to New Zealand annually! Every class in the community is affected—the city artisan, the shop-keeper, the professional man, ’ and the country workers are all concerned. Every industry and every business in town or country is being robbed of so much trade and interchange by the failure to open up the idle native and Crown lands.— Mr. W. F. Massey, MJ*,