CANCELLATION OF HOLIDAY

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23513, 16 December 1941, Page 10

CANCELLATION OF HOLIDAY

♦ GOVERNMENT OFFICES AND BANKS • BUSINESS FIRMS ASKED TO OPEN The cancellation of Canterbury’s Anniversary Day holiday to-day was requested by the Prime Minister in a statement from Wellington last evening. All Government offices will be open for business to-day, and private firms were asked to take the same course. It was announced yesterday that the banks had cancelled the holiday, and the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews) said the Christchurch City Council offices would be open for business as usual. The statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Department was as follows: “The Prime Minister announces that all Government offices in Christchurch will be open for duty to-morrow, December 16. Owing to the existing emergency, it is not possible to give public servants their usual Anniversary Day holiday. For the same reason instructions have been given to all firms engaged on the production of urgent defence orders and other Government requirements to continue working to-morrow. This includes clothing factories, woollen mills, boot factories, tanneries, foundries, and engineering establishments. “The Prime Minister regrets the necessity for asking these firms and their employees to work on a day which has by long custom been regarded as a holiday, but he is sure the people concerned will appreciate the position and will readily respond in this time of emergency,” the statement concluded. The Prime Minister also suggested that all other firms and businesses continue working to-morrow.