THE HALF-HOLIDAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1696, 12 March 1913, Page 8

THE HALF-HOLIDAY.

PROGRESS WITH THE PETITION. The petition for a poll on the half-holi-day question which is being circulated by the Wellington District Labour Council now bears 4200 signatures. It. will be presented, probably on Friday, March 28, to the Mayor of Wellington (Mr. D. M'Laren), who is chairman of the local bodies' conference which deals with tho halfholiday question in tho Wellington district. < '

"We have two weeks yet in which to Set signatures," Mr. K. J. Carey told a reporter yesterday, "and we anticipate making up the total to at least 5000. A poll on the half-holiday question is already assnrcd. The minimum liumbcr of signatures on the petition which would ensure a poll is ten per cent, of the total qualified voters in the combined district, something like 30,000."

An interesting feature of the present half-holiday campaign, Mr. Corey Sulded, is that a good deal of support is being obtained from shopkeepers. It is estimated that about 300 shopkeepers have signed the petition, hi Wellington there are 1041 shops, including hotels and restaurant.!-. The number of persons engaged is 5200, including female employers, and 1557 malo employers. Of assistants there arc 1954 males and 1349 females. These figures are taken from tho Labour Department report for 1012. Saturday has been adopted as the weekly half-holiday, Mr. Carey stated, in Ifobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, ami Brisbane. In tho country districts of Australia the weekly half-holiday is de-' tcTmined on much the same plan as obtains- in Now Zealand. In Queensland about 25 polls have been taken, and in only one instance out of tho 25 has the mid-week half-holiday bsen adopted. "Early in the fight, two years ago," Mr. Carey stated in conclusion, "there wns plenty of evidenco of opposition to the Saturday proposal. On this occasion tho Labour Council officers have been encouraged by numerous shopkeepers and have sioted that they are confident of winning easily." The figures in the Ifllt poll upon the half-holidav miestion were:—•Wednesday, 9GSB; Satnrdav, 7018.