NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1934. WEEKLY HALF-HOLIDAY IN KAITAIA

Northern Advocate, 15 September 1934, Page 8

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1934. WEEKLY HALF-HOLIDAY IN KAITAIA

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

On Wedneday next the 19th ihst., the people of Kaitaia Town District will be called upon to say whether the day for the weekh'' half-holiday m the town shall be Thursday or Saturday. The half-holiday is now observed on Thursday, an „ arrangement which has worked most satisfactorily. There are those in the community who look with favour upon a Saturday half-holiday, and it is only natural that they should have seized the opportunity which a poll presents to endeavour to secure a changeover from Thursday to Saturday. They have been busily engaged in a campaign for some time past, and they must 1 be credited with the possession of a sincere belief that a Saturday half-holiday would be better than a mid-week half-holiday. This belief, in our opinion, is not well founded, for, whatever may be said for a Saturday half-holiday in the cities, it has been learned from experience that a country town, or, perhaps it would be better to put it, a town which is the shopping centre of a country district, is much better served • by a midweek half-holiday. This is easily understood. Country people, for reasons which are self-evident, can come into town on a Saturday much more conveniently than on any other day of the week. The farmer and his family—especially where children of school age are concerned—make Saturday shopping day and holiday combined, while farm workers are the better able to go to town, the labours of Iho week being ended. A weekly halfholiday observed on Saturday must materially affect the mini-1 her of visitors to a country or I provincial town, for the simple reason that a mid-week visit, with the resumption of farm work next morning, is not attractive to the rural dweller. From the. point of view of sport, there is perhaps something to be said for a Saturday half-holiday, but a community cannot live by sport alone. Apart from the convenience to country people which a mid-week halfholiday confers, the trading welfare of a town must be considered. It has been demonstrated beyond shadow of doubt that towns in the same category as Kaitaia are best served by a mid-week half-

holiday; the inhabitants have borne testimony to this whenever they have been asked to vote on the question. So far as Kaitaia is concerned, the matter is, of course, one for the people to decide, but, in view of the general experience throughout the Dominion, we feel that it would be distinctly unwise to make a change from the existing order.