LOST WEEK-ENDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26842, 5 August 1948, Page 4

LOST WEEK-ENDS

Our legislators are complacent over their achievements in social progress, and the trade unionists—who constitute something of a semi-legisla-tive body—are complacent over the improvements in industrial conditions, though they are by no means satisfied with what they have so far attained, and their dissatisfaction is

expressed in making still more elaborate demands for justice for the worker. Even the average family man persuades himself that his material needs are fairly well supplied, but this is perhaps because he is disinclined to make the effort necessary to obtain something other than that which is given to him. Yet' all three, the legislator, the trade unionist and the family man, if they

were questioned as individuals and not in any “ professional ” capacity, would probably agree' that the life they have sought to ordain has not the fullness they thought it would have. Probably they would agree with Dr L. J. Comrie, who after revisiting his native land has declared that the dreariness of a New Zealand week-end astounded him. Such agreement, however, would ho thp result of a temporary

lapse into honesty of thought and would in many cases be almost immediately repudiated, for the dreary week-end is the reward of a long struggle; It is the symbol of that social experimentation in which this country is supposed to lead the world, and it must be cherished as such even if it cannot be relished. But it is surely not absolutely

essential that opinion should swing directly from admission to defence. If the New Zealand week-end is a “lost week-end,” in a general and not wholly alcoholic sense, it is because we have sought to save it too exclusively for ourselves. By seeking to make the Saturday and Sunday sacred to leisure and the recreation of mind and body, we have deprived ourselves of too many of the avenues by which we have access

to these activities; There are certain industries and services in which the employees must work while others play. These employees suffer an occupational disadvantage which can be overcome—but not by sacrificing the interests of the community to the desires of the few. The modern community is a highly organised entity, and even its leisure and its recreation must be organised to a certain extent. Facilities to attend sporting fixtures, theatres and hotels —until 6 o’clock on the Saturday afternoon —are not enough. This will be realised readily by anyone who spends a week-end away from home. In such circumstances one is placed in the position of the tourist visitor to this country, and is compelled to admit that the bene- ; fit of the long week-end is largely . a negative one. It is through political channels that this spirit of -nega- ( 1 tion has found expression, and one -approach to remedying jt is political, but it must be suggested that its real j origin lies deeper. There are needs '• 0 f the human body, mind and spirit ■ which cannot be catered for By legis- ’ lation-