Tourists fill buses, trams ... 

The city tram and bus services, recently so greatly enlarged and extended, have been taxed to the utmost during the past three days to meet the excessively heavy demands made upon them by the thousands of holiday makers in the city. On Christmas Day, though there was a reduced service in the morning, the traffic was very heavy owing, no doubt, to the large number of strangers in the city. Total takings of £377 on the city lines were far ahead of last year.

The traffic on Boxing Day, which began early and continued heavy till well after midnight, was easily a record in the history of the city transport service, a record both in the number of passengers carried and in the amount collected in fares. Saturday's takings will be in the vicinity of £1300. Crowds were being taken out to the Exhibition till 9 o'clock in the evening, and by that time the homeward rush began, and it continued till past midnight. The buses were, of course, exceptionally busy,  and six bus loads made the trip to Waipori.

Yesterday all buses were required for observation purposes, and accordingly trams were run to take the places of the buses. Ten of the buses conveyed as many as 200 people out to Waipori. In the afternoon the demand for observation tours exceeded the capacity of the available buses, and two special tramcars were put on to enable visitors to see something of the surroundings of the city. 

 ... and trains

Again on Saturday the local authorities had to handle abnormally large crowds of travellers. Doubtless on account of the Exhibition the inward traffic was much heavier than the outward. The through express from Invercargill carried as many as 950 passengers, about 300 of whom were deposited at Wingatui, leaving 640 to come on to Dunedin. The relief express from Gore arriving at 6.15pm brought 350, and the 6.45pm from Invercargill 330, making a total of over 1300 visitors.

There were four through trains from Christehureh, the first three of which were very heavily laden with passengers. The 4.18pm brought 650, the 5.6pm 750, the 8.45pm 680 and another 280 arrived at 9.30pm, making in all 2360. 

The 8.33am express to Invercargill took away 330 passengers, the 9am 200 passengers and the 4.40pm another 350. 

The number of north bound passengers was very similar. Some 260 left by the 8.40am train for Christchureh, 397 by the 9.10am special and 420 by the 11.30am, which was somewhat delayed by the large crowds for which it had to cater. The total for the three northward expresses was approximately 1060.

Passengers on the race trains to Wingatui numbered 4469, which is about 700 more than last year, and is probably a record.  — ODT, 28.12.1925