NELSON HALF-HOLIDAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 414, 25 January 1909, Page 10

NELSON HALF-HOLIDAY.

■Sir,—The letter you published from a Nelson tradesman in -reference to the Saturday holiday. appears to local residents onesided and gives an incorrect_ impression. After a year's trial of . the Saturday halfholiday, the local Retailers' Association t refused to take any action as an association,' as there was so much difference of Opinion amongst its membors as,to whether Wednesday or Saturday was the better day. Very few retailers will admit they did less business last year on account of the Saturday halfholiday, but,. liko your.-correspondent, fiay that if it had not been .for so and so, .etc., the effect would have been disastrous, or they would- have done move business, etc. They forget that ths same conditions existed during the s greater part of the preceding year. .

The-wildest es-partc statements are indulged in by partisans. Your correspondent's statement that there was a combination of the wholesale and semi-wholesalo . stores against tho retailer is a sample. It is stated on good authority that a large proportion of country stores would have followed the city's lead and'dosed on Saturday this year but for the City Council's action in altering tho day to Wednesday. , Why should they do this if they were getting more business"? To illustrate tho absurd difference of opinion, ono city councillor, in discussing the said he would vote against Saturday as it increased drinking; there were two late nights for the hotels. "Vig3ans,"..in the. "Vanguard," the Prohibitionist paper, said on January 9, after a personal '-v'isit'' rdtind •■'the Nelson hotels: "1 should say . . the publicans' trade in Nelson-is seriously affected by the half-holiday on Saturday. : . It would be worth while to projiote the Saturday half-holiday in the interests' of moral, reform." As far as one can learn, the weokly average is very little affected. The City Council's action in-changing the, day this year from Saturday to Wednesday' needs explanation. Your correspondent is quite right in: saying. that the largo petition for. Saturday of the previous year was padded by sig-. natures of many not really interested, as.they already .enjoyed' the Saturday half-holiday. The Wednesday, poople were caught, napping, they sent in a small petition, and Saturday was declared tha . half-holiday. , ' ■ This year the position was. revorscd.- The Saturday people were oaught napping. They relied'on several-councillors' statements that , they would vote.for. the' decision to ho v _left to the Minister, and.sent in a small petition. Tho Wednesday people,'on' the contrary, left no stone unturned. They sont in a large petition,: padded in its turn-,-by the signatures of inany not really interested,' who were exempt under tho , Act, or .who, employed no assistants. The council, wisoly or foolishly, did As they had. done the previous year, arid voted for the day—Wednesday this timeasked for by the larger petition. Both sides seem equally confident of winningif it comos to a poll,-but tho opinion of outsiders best qualified to judge is that Saturday would probably be carried.—l am,' etc., V :'" v ''•■•;■. NELSON RESIDENT.'