THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 149, 21 December 1921, Page 7

THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.

The Public Holidays Amendment Bill was passed by the House of Representatives last night in the form submitted by the Labour Bills Committee. In reply to questions the Acting-Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie) said that the right* of the railway servants I had been safeguarded by agreement with their organisations. The men would receive a holiday for the day lost.

Mr; J. M'Combs(Lyttelton) thought the committee had gone further than it intended, and had made it possible for hotels to open.on Monday. He wished to have a proviso inserted to-prevent this being done. * Sir John Luke (Wellington North) said the legislation was intended only to conserve the" rights of workers. Monday and Tuesday were otherwise secular days, and Mr. M'Combs was asking for two sacred days because of the Alteration of the Act.

Mr. L. M. Isitt (Chriatchurch North) supported Mr. M'Combs.

The Minister of Internal Affairs (ths Hon. W. Dowcie Stewart) said Mr. M'C^ombsfs request; was that there should be discrimination in the secularisation of the day with respect to only one business—the licensed trad©. The Minister said that the hotels would have had the right to open under the 1908 Act, but i for the alteration made by the 1910 law. There had been no representations made to him by the licensed trade in any way. Mr. M'Combs moved his proviso that the hotels should remain closed on Monday, but this was rejected by 51 to 7.