HOLIDAYS ENDING

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30955, 11 January 1966, Page 12

HOLIDAYS ENDING

Factories To Reopen

More than 20,000 factory workers are expected to return to work in Christchurch on Thursday. They will have been on their Christmas holidays for one day short of three weeks. Their holidays have been made up of two weeks’ annual holiday, plus statutory holidays. An estimated 12,000 Christchurch factory workers will be resuming work between tomorrow and next Monday. Some city commercial offices have already resumed work but the bulk of them will reopen on Monday. Many of the large produce merchants and wool stores have not closed, except for statutory holidays, because of seasonal demands.

“Things don’t really get back to normal till about the beginning of February,” said the secretary of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce (Mr P. L. Bush) yesterday. The chamber, he said, would hold its first council meeting of the year next month.

Contrary to expectations most suppliers of ready-mix concrete have done little business over the holiday period. Men doing jobs at home had bought a bit of shingle for drives and paths, said the manager of Ashby Bros., Ltd. (Mr J. D. Ashby) yesterday. But they had bought very little ready-mix. Mr Ashby said that his firm had reopened a week earlier this year on January 6, to cater for this trade.

Business had been so poor that he doubted very much whether he would reopen early after the next Christmas holidays.