CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1928, Page 3

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

ANNIVERSARY DAY HOLIDAY, COUNCIL NOT FAVOURABLE. The monthly meeting of the council of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce was held last night. Present: Messrs. 0. H. Weston (chairman), S. Vickers, J. McLeod, W. J. Penn, T. C. List, J. A- R. McGregor, J. R. Cruiekshank, F. S. Johns, B. E. S. Brodie, A. H. Atchley, G. Fraser and L. M. Moss. Apologies for absence were received from Messrs. A. F. Sandford, W. D. Armit, J. McNeill, lE. C. Heyton, S. F. Burgess and H. F. Mirams. Mr. Brodie wrote resigning from the council in view of his promotion to Napier. He thanked the members for their consideration and help while he was an honorary member of the council in his capacity as chief postmaster. The chairman said they very much regretted Mr. Brodie’s departure, which would mean a distinct loss to the chamber. Mr. Vickers said the country residents would certainly miss Mr. Brodie, who had always been very ready and willing in his attention to rural matters. Mr. Brodie thanked the council members for their remarks. From the day he had arrived in New Plymouth, he said, he had always received every consideration from business men and other citizens, and he felt a real regret in leaving the town that he had come to regard as indeed a home. Having been approached with the suggestion that March 31, the anniversary of the Taranaki province, should beobserved as a public holiday, the Taranaki Local Bodies’ Association wrote asking for the views of local bodies and chambers of commerce. It had been prothat instead of an additional holiday being observed, Anniversary Day should be- substituted for some other public holiday. Mr. Johns said that some time ago the holiday was given a trial, but the retailers found it clashed with Easter. He thought they should observe a holiday, as other provinces did. Mr. McGregor said Anniversary Day was a compulsory holiday under the carters’ award. “QUITE ENOUGH HOLIDAYS.” Mr. List suggested they had quite enough holidays as it was. Mr. McLeod said that the holiday was observed during the three or four years Mr. Tisch was Mayor. He understood the uncertain weather about that period was largely responsible for it being dropped. Mr. Johns thought they should observe the holiday as a compliment to the original settlers. He moved that the chamber agree to a holiday being observed, provided it could be substituted for some other holiday. Mr. List pointed out that if the day were observed as a public holiday it would be an injustice to employers governed by awards that specified certain holidays. Anniversary Day would mean the imposition of an extra holiday to be paid for, as it was most unlikely it could be substituted for another day under the award©. Once holidays were recognised in awards it was practically impossible to have them altered or reduced. The motion was lost.

With reference to the statement by the shipping companies that the freight rate to New Plymouth from Smyrna was at per 1000 kilos and that pf the Union Company at per 40 feet was correct, Mr. Gordon Fraser wrote that the companies had missed the point of the complaint, which related to a comparison between their charges from Sydney to Wellington (35s plus 3 per cent, primage per 1000 kilos; Union Company, same ports, 35s per 40 feet, plus harbour board improvement rate) and Sydney to New Plymouth, via Wellington (85s, plus 3 per cent, per 1000 kilos; Union Company, same ports, 655, plus harbour board improvement rates per 40 feet). Mr. Fraser said it would serve no purpose to go further in the matter; the companies would not give way. He had raised the matter because the difference in the rates was a reflection on New Plymouth as a port. The companies concerned were still under the delusion that the port was being worked by surf boats. LOWER MANGOREI ROAD. In forwarding a copy of a letter he had sent the Taranaki County Council, Mr. Benoni White asked the council's support for his request that Lower Mangorei Road should be improved during the coming season. The chairman said there was no doubt a good deal in what Mr. White said. Mr. Vickers explained the position of the county council regarding secondary highways. Before the county could avail itself of the highways money it had to raise money from the ratepayers, he said. He considered the position on Lower M.angorei Road would ' be relieved when the work of building . a six miles' highway on the Junction

Road was put in hand. The Highways Board would subsidise this £3 for £1 and the county would ask the ratepayers to contribute. The county could not ask the same district (the Mangorei riding) to contribute to a secondary highway. The Junction Road would become the highway when it was well built to its full width and would relieve the Mangorei Read of considerable traffic. The council decided to write the county council conveying its sympathy with Mr. White’s request. Mr. McLeod suggested the council might consider its attitude on the proposal to advance the clocks by half an hour during the summer months, but it was decided to take no action in the matter. Messrs. J. R. Scott and W. F. McCallum were admitted as members of the chamber.