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Timaru Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 11592, 30 October 1901, Page 2

The request of His Worship the Mayor; avowedly. made at the instance of a number of, if not a majority of, the shopkeepers of Timaru, that Friday, November Bth, be observed as the holiday in honour of the Sovereign's Birthday, instead of Saturday, November 9th, the proper calendar date, has caused the publication of some adverse and satirical criticisms. We may point out that the dispute is in part due to different points of view of the disputants. The Mayor's request, we understand, is addressed chiefly to shop-keepers ; the strongest criticisms have come from representatives of factory-owners. 'These two classes, as such, are under different laws. The Factories Act expressly states that women and young children employed in factories or work-rooms must be, given a holiday on the Sovereign's Birthday. The Shops and Shop Assistants Act does not contain any such provision; and though it does allude to the Sovereign's Birthday, it is by way of assumption that that day will be observed as a holiday. The idea that the Sovereign's Birthday might be made a " moveable feast" does not appear .to have entered the heads of our legislators, and therefore they have not forbidden the operation directly or by implication. The Factories Act does, fix the date. It is to be the Sovereign's Birthday, and no local authority, or local desire, can alter that date for the factories. We offer no opinion on Ihe proposal to close the shops on Friday instead of Sattarday. ■ There appears to be something to be said on both sides. One thing has not been said, as far as we are aware, and that is that the sentiment of loyalty to the Sovereign might be given a little extra weight in the scale for Saturday closing, because this will be the first time the 9th of November, has been the "Sovereign's" Birthday.