SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6274, 30 December 1921, Page 6

SATURDAY HALF-HOLI-DAY.

NEW POLLS SOUGHT. TOWNS THAT HAVE LOST BUSINESS. Some of the towns that adopted the Saturday half-holiday- in April last are dissatisfied and have petitioned Parliament for authority to take fresh polls in April next without waiting- for the end of the normal period of two years, but the Labour Bills Committee had no recommendation to make. Mr S. G. Smith (Taranaki) said that he did not think the committee could have come to any other decision, but he felt that provision ought to be made for a poll throughout New Zealand on the holiday'question. The opponents of the Saturday half-holiday felt that they had been placed at a disadvantage. Mr W. 11. Field (Obaki) suggested that the report should be « referred back to the committee for further consideration. The people of a borough ought to have a chance to revise their decision if they found that the Saturday half-holiday did not suit them. He was informed that heavy losses had been suffered by towns that had closed their | shops on Saturday when neighbouring towns were doing business on that day. The country people liked to do their. shopping on Saturday. Mr W. A. Yeitch (Wanganui), said that confusion would result if the decisions of the electors were liable to review. The holiday question. had been decided by ballot, for a period of two years. If the Wednesday advocates could .secure another poll within the year by petition, the Saturday advocates would have the same right, and frequent changes would result. The Minister of Labour (lion. G. J. Anderson) remarked that in every case where Saturday had been adopted for the half-holiday in a town dependent upon farmers’ trade, there had. been loss of business and general dissatisfaction, not only in the towns, but in the surrounding country. The small shopkeepers suffered in every case. The large shopkeepers did not suffer, because they sent out their motors to got the business. He hoped other country towns would not fall into the trap that had caught New Plymouth, Timaru, and other centres. Mr .T. McCombs (Lyttelton) insisted that difficulty arose, only during the transition stage from one holiday to another. The volume of business- per week would be found to be unaltered after people had become accustomed to the new order. The decision of the Xieople ought not to be varied until a fair trial had been given to the selected holiday in each case.

“The sole -objection to the Saturday half-holiday is the hopeless conservatism of the farming classes,” said Mr L. M. Isitt (Christchurch North). He did not think that the objections to the Saturday half-holiday were valid. Mr Field’s amendment, pro-posing that the matter should be referred back to the committee for further consideration was rejected bv 34 votes to 32.