LABOUR DAY

Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 2

LABOUR DAY

SIGNIFICANCE AND ORIGIN To the average young persons of today Labour Day has little or no significance other than that it is a public holiday. They look forward to it, during this era of the 40-hour week, as an extra clay which makes a long week-end longer, enabling them to plan excursion trips and picnics. Labour Day, however, owes its origin to the institution of the eight-hour day, and was set aside in the Labour Day Act of 1889 in recognition thereof. The late Mr S. D. Parnell, of Auckland, was the prime mover in'having the eight-hour day recognised, and even before official observance of Labour Day events were held on that day in various parts of the country in his honour — sports, processions, and speeches being the order of the day. Originally Labour Day, under the Act, was set down to be observed on the second Wednesday in each October, and it was not till 1910 that the time was altered to the last Monday.

At one time there was a Labour Day Association in this city, an annual picnic and sports gathering being held, but that body has now become defunct, the people possibly preferring to amuse themselves in their own .particular ways.

Nob always was there a working day of eight hours. There was a time in the early history of the Dominion when the hours winch a man might be worked depended very largely upon the whim or necessity of his employer. In this respect it is interesting to note that in the early days of the Otago settlement 10, hours was considered a working day, but even in those distant times there, were men whose names are now familiar in the history of the province who advocated the eight-hour day.