EASTER HOLIDAYS SHOULD SATURDAY BE OBSERVED?

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 78, 2 April 1914, Page 8

EASTER HOLIDAYS SHOULD SATURDAY BE OBSERVED?

OPINIONS OF BUSINESS MEN. (II TELEGRAPH.— SPECIAL TO TIIB POST.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The decision of the Public Service Com.' missioners to declare Easter Saturday a holiday in the Service raises the question of how far this policy might be followed by business interests generally. Locally, the big manufacturers and warehouses close on Saturday in almost every 'instance, but retailers look on the day as a good one for business, coming in the middle of what would be otherwise a four days' holiday. , A leading draper said that he would have no hesitation in saying that he was opposed to any proposal of this kind. Easter Saturday was one of the busiest days of the year, and the drapers could not afford to lose any more time than they did at present. If the closing on Easter Saturday only meant the loss of a, halfday, he would not mind, but under the present conditions the drapers would bo entitled to remain open the whole of tho day up till 9 o'clock in the evening. i Mr. J. B! Laurenson, a prominent ironfounder, said that his firm had closed on Easter Saturday for some years. He had found »• that even if he wanted the men to come back to work for the halfday there would not be many who would make an appearance. Ho said that lie considered that there should be a universal holiday during Easter, as it gave the workers a chance for a good rest, which would be of great benefit to them. Mr. W. H. M'Dougall, the proprietor of Aulsebrook and Co., was also in favour of the proposition, but his firm, too, had made a practice for years of closing right through Easter — not only to Easter Monday, but the following Tuesday as well. There were only one or two chances in the year when his employees were able to get away for a holiday, and he was of opinion that they needed the change and rest.