SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 893, 12 August 1910, Page 5

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

THE MOVEMENT IN AUCKLAND. tßy Telegraph—Special Correspondent Auckland/August 10. The universal Saturday half-holiday movement here is opposed by a section of employers and tradesmen, but the committeo which is furthering the movement claims that' many employers support it. A member of the committee, speaking on .the subject to. a pressman,, stated that the opposition to the universal Saturday half-holiday was confined to a few isolated cases, but that the great majority of shopkeej>ers in Karangahape Road and in Symonds Street, both large and small, were in favour of the proposal. It had been argued that the Saturday trado in the suburbs was an important item in the week's takings, and that the institution of tlia week-end hali-holiday would mean disaster to a largo number of small shopkeepers; but this idea, he said, is combated' by the Saturday section who maintain that the trade could be moro' evenly distributed through the week and that the suburbs and small people would not. suffer in' any way. As for the man in the street who clamours for, a shopping day on Saturday on the plea that he gets his wages on Saturday, it l;, argued that ho is speaking from a purely selfish standpoint because the natural sequence to a Saturday half-holiday would be a Friday pay-day. The argument that a Saturday half-holiday would also mean a large percentage of workers' wages finding its way into the' till of the. publican is also scouted as being a slur on the intelligence, thrift, and sobriety of the.' working-man at large. The promoters of the universal week-end half-holi-day flatly contradicted the assertion that a previous trial of the system proved a failure,' and maintain . that during the three or four weeks in.which the system was given a trial business adjusted itself to the altered circumstances and that no actual loss was sustained.

"Of course," said the advocate of the Saturday half-holiday, "it is understood that what we want is universal closing —no exemption whatever—for it is tho "xemption that brings about' failure in tho working of such a scheme as this."