SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

Southland Times, Issue 18623, 22 August 1919, Page 2

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

To the Editor. Sir, —I have been following with interest the correspondence in your columns on the ■Saturday half-holiday question, and would like to point out what I have proved by experience in one of the centres where the Saturday half-holiday is held. In the first place it is absolutely necessary that all workers do their shopping some time or other, if not on Saturday, during the week, which means almost invariably a half day must be take nfrom work, and in some cases where it is difficult to get away half days tv w’holc day is taken. This I have seen done times without number. What docs this mean w-hen one try ß to form an estimate of the number of people employed in factories and'workshops? Simply decreased production, and this at a time when the welfare of the nation depends on increased production. The papers are full of statements as to the vital necessity of observing this fact. Only to-day we have Mr Lloyd George’s appeal for increased production and economy, also notice of a iurther reduction in the value of the English covereign, and almost side by side with these things, which must surely make every citizen of the Empire realise how serious the position is, we have “Buzz Along’s” letter advocating two half-holidays a week. No wonder ho admits people may think him mad. History tells us Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, and it seems to me some people still think that to-day the amount of pleasure to be got out of it is rll that matters, even though the cleverest and deepest thinking men tell us that only through the. workers can Britain retain the position she occupied in the world before the war. So to my mind the shop assistants, who are after all only a small section of the workers, can show their patriotism by voting against the Saturday halfholiday and so make it possible for the large army of workers in other branches to speed up production and save the Empire.—l am, etc., WORKER. August 21.