The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1945. LABOUR DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 25620, 22 October 1945, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1945. LABOUR DAY.

The significance of Labour Day in New Zealand has become lost with the passing of the years, and it is no longer an occasion for public rejoicing on the part of Labour elements. The day has its link, sentimental though not material, with the traditional May Day celebrations held on the Continent by trade unions and Labour organisations, and it has its counterpart in almost every industrial country. In Italy it I was suppressed and its place taken by the historic date of the foundation of Home. In New Zealand Labour Day recognises the establishment of the eight-hour day, a big gain to the working masses when it became law. The originator of the eight-hour day in tho Dominion was Samuel Duncan Parnell, a London-born carpenter who • instituted an eight-hour working day in his own business in London. His “revolution” gained no ground there, so ho sailed for New Zealand, reaching Wellington in 1840. Ho undertook building at Wellington, and employed his men for eight hours each day, thus introducing the eight-hour day. It was, of course, not law, but as Labour elements grew in strength agitation for a national eight-liour day also grew. Eventually workers’ organisations set up an Eight-hour Day Committee which made'T'epresentations to the Government of the day through Mr R. J. Seddo’n, and in 1899 an Act was passed establishing the eight-hour day in industry. It is of interest to record that the movement for a Labour Day holiday began in Dunedin, where Robert Slater, a Cumberland stonemason, who came to Dunedin in 1879, took up tho cause of the workers. He worked for a time oil tho railways, and in 1880 he organised the employees into a union. Later he went into the clothing trade, and devoted much of his time to labour organisations, and was one of the founders of the Otago Trades and Labour Council, of which he was the first president and secretary. In 1890 he began agitation for the Labour Day holiday, and after much opposition the first celebration was held here. From it there was a profit of £2OO, which went to the Denuiston coal miners then on strike. After being first fixed for October 2, Labour Day was later made movable, and from 1910 was set down for the fourth Monday in October. Labour Day ,is celebrated on tbe first Monday in September in nearly all the United States and in the Canadian provinces. In Britain Labour Day celebrations usually take place on .the first Sunday after May 1, the traditional meeting place being Hyde Park, as it has been since 1892. On the Continent, no matter what day of the week it was, the workers invariably attempted to_ force Slav 1 as a public holiday. This frequently led to bitter clashes witli the police, and Slay Day riots were common. Russia has long recognised the day as an official holiday. In New Zealand. the occasion is now just a public holiday, particularly welcome in that it stands out like an oasis in a long period of working days between the King’s Birthday and Christmas. It has, as a side aspect, been generally marked with indifferent weather, but the holiday is still looked forward to for all its meteorological vagaries.