The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, SEPTEMER 23, 1910 DOMINION DAY.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 23 September 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, SEPTEMER 23, 1910 DOMINION DAY.

Xkxt Monday will be Dominion Day; and the Postal Service, the Telegraph Service, the Telephone Service, and the Cablegram Service all will be suspended. It is a verydirect incentive to observation of the holiday that the' Government gives annually—in this manner—to the professions and trades of the various districts throughout New Zealand, but so far there has been no wide observance, of the occasion. Rightly or wrongly, the people of New Zealand were impressed with an idea that the proclamation of these islands as a dominion came at least fifty years too soon; and the result of this impression is seen in a widespread disregard of the .holiday that is proclaimed on each recurring anniversary of the proclamation. Wo confess to a fellow leoliii£ for the "passive resistors"— holding, as we do. that there is a too great tendency in these times to get away from the calls for persistence in labour; but we also are in the position cf knowing when we are "up against a brick wall," and of refusing to butt our collective heads against the obstruction. The closing of the local telegraph office, and the consequent absence of our customary cablegrams giving the Old World's news, and of telegrams regarding Now Zealand's most recent events, have shorn us of one-half of our news resources for next Monday; added to which, the suspension of the telephone service will accentuate the difficulties of collecting local news and of transacting commercial work. What do local business men think of the position? It seems to us that Sir Joseph Ward, the originator of the Dominion Day movement in New Zealand, has reached an impasse in his endeavours to push the holiday towards the goal of assured success. The closing of all Government offices,' and' the deprivation of the public's convenience by suspending all business processes in the Post and Telegraphs Department, savours of a dragooning process. What does Sir Joseph say to a suggestion that a referendum of public bodies he ta.ken on. the matter ; or even a vote of the whole electors of New Zealand? People should not be compelled to have and to hold what they do not want.