ARE THERE TOO MANY HOLIDAYS?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 134, 23 June 1937, Page 4

ARE THERE TOO MANY HOLIDAYS?

A Southern paper raises the question whether New Zealanders observe too many holidays. It points out that in the early dayk of settlement, when people were more isolated and seldom met, eertain days in the year were declared holidays, when shipmates and acquaintances could foregather, but despite closer settlement and the consequent lessening of isolation, the number of holidays on the calendar have been added to, It observes, inter alia : " The tradition survives, and a new generation has taken the luck out of the calendar by ' Mondayising' all holidays that fall on Saturday. The five-day week, too, adds another fifty holidays to the year, giving a weekly two-days' pause for lounging, gardening, travel, or any of the other things that the masses enjoy. This new freedom however, raises the question whether it is not time to curtail the casual holidays . . . such curtailment is hard. Nevertheless reform is needed. The whole question is clouded by the popular belief that the masses reoeive a holiday at the expense of the employer.. Actually they pay for it themselves in the long run, for their wages must have a constant relation to the seivice rendered by them. And if they realise that, they would cut a good many casual holidays out of the calendar."