THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1914. THE PURPOSE OF HOLIDAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15801, 26 December 1914, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1914. THE PURPOSE OF HOLIDAYS.

There is no institution more human and delightful than the holiday. Not only is it coloured and beautified by the odd and appealing traits of human nature luxuriating in temporary freedom from routine, but the holiday is itself typical of the ebb and flow of all human affairs. If man were capable of ceaseless energy and perpetual application there might still be holidays, but it is the finiteness and limitation of his very humanity that makes relaxation and change inevitable Since the human race was there haw been holidays, and there ever will be. These longer intervals of rest and recreation are as necessary as the night's sleep to restoro and maintain vigour of body and mind. In modern life they become increasingly necessary. The growing intensity of business affects all engaged in it, from the employer and organiser down to the humblest worker, and for the concentration of faculties so demanded, the groat antidote is rest and relaxation. Hence arise some of the forms of holiday which are peculiar to modern times and would have amazed men only a few generations ago. It is safe to say that never has the gentle lullaby of the ocean been so grateful as to the present-day business man who reaches the seashore with jangled nerves, tired brain, and frayed temper.,. Never has the simple luxury of resting in golden sunshine. under a green tree and thinking of nothing appealed as to the modern. To him is reserved the supreme joy of Mother Nature's fond welcome to her prodigal son, tired to the point of exhaustion by the strange world of his own invention. He is wise not to presume too much, lest he find Nature in sterner mood demanding satisfaction for broken law.

The holiday as we know it in New Zealand comes very near the ideal. |n those golden weeks which mark the change of the year, custom and season both conspire to draw men to the seaside and the country. To the English traditions of Christmas we add the splendours of weather such as England seldom knows. We lose nothing of the spirit of Christmas, but we give it a new and pleasant setting. On the beaches that lie so aburdant and convenient to the chief centres of population, in the glades of the pleasant bush of the interior, practically the who!-; population finds rest and inexpensive enjoyment under conditions that in less favoured climes wealth cannot purchase. It is little wonder, therefore, that holiday-making has become a characteristic an altogether admirable one—of tho national life of New Zealand. As a nation w:> are stronger, more efficient, and more vital because of these happy picnic parties which at this season arc to be seen on every side. The • pleasant hours in or by the sea, the long tramps through the bush, the mountaineering excursions are of inestimable value to the national health. The tonic effects of the holiday communicate themselves to the national industries when the wheels begin to turn again, and the moral and intellectual value of the change lies in the acquirement of new interests, new hopes and ambitions and the charging of the memory with happy recollections with which to link the pleasant past with the promise of the future.

In no country is the right of the worker to reasonable leisure more carefully guarded by legislation or more fully endorsed by public opinion than in New Zealand. The statute book abounds with provisions limiting the hours and governing the conditions of labour, so that the weakest unit in the least organised trade is as well secured from exploitation as members of powerful unions. Behind, this volume of legislation there is a lively public intelligence fully persuaded of the material and moral benefits conferred on the whole community by the periodic resting of each individual worker. This reasonable and very general conception of holidays is quite distinct from the vicious doctrine of extremists that holidays are in themselves a grand object, to be won by

irritating class war and to bo constantly augmented. The apotheosis of idleness may be a convenient platform catch, but wherever rational thought is given to the matter it is seen that idleness as a normal state would lead to the decadence of the human race even if it were economically possible. The extremists' view of leisure is quite the antithesis of that reasonably and generally held, for it supposes inactivity to bo an end in itself, whereas the community at large views rest and recuperation as a pleasant change making for a renewal of useful effort and efficient industry. The wiser conception of holidays recognises the employer as being an interested party equally with the employee, and the holiday as being to the mutual advantage of both. Certainly no wise employer, his humanity being altogether left out of the reckoning, will attempt to use his workmen in such a manner or to such an extent as to impair their efficiency. On the other hand, employers may reasonably ask that holidays be so arranged as to interfere as little as possible with the continuity of industry. This is an aspect to which Parliament has given little consideration, and it is open to question whether some of the single day holidays observed throughout the year do n;.«t disadvantage the community more by the interruption of industry than they advantage the workers. If Parliament were approaching the wholo subject de novo it would probably be found easy to make an allocation of holidays that would be more generally convenient without encroaching on any of tho privileges of those whom holidays are primarily intended to benefit.