Our Holidays.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1017, 29 December 1881, Page 2

Our Holidays.

We are sure that the public generally do not object to the Government officials having their share of the holidays incidental to the season, bitt we do protest that it is not compatible with public convenience for some of the departments to be closed for a period of ten days, with no more notice to the public than is contained on a sheet of paper stuck on the office door. On Tuesday last our attention was drawn to this matter by sundry visitors to the office of the lt.M.’s Clerk, on the door of which was posted, the following : —

“Notice: This olFce will be closed from to-day until 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the 3rd day of January, 1832, except from half-past 9 to 10 daily, when it will be open for Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. The above exception will not apply to the 26th December or the 2nd January.— By order, G. L. Greenwood, Clerk of Court.” “ Gisborne, Dec. 24th, 1881.” Similar notices were not posted on the doors of other offices, although some of them were closed, and, it is presumed, for a like purpose. But why so great a liberty should be taken with the public as to put up the shutters of our public offices for 10 days without due premonition, we cannot say. And why do the officials graciously condescend toopen forhalf-an-hour only ? Just the time in which least business is done during the day ; and the most inconvenient out of the 24 hours for country people to attend. And again, why is the business to be done limited, at the caprice of the operating functionary, to the registration of births, (deaths, and marriages ? True, he gets his fees for these ; but so he does for the other duties appertaining to his office, and we opine he has no more authority to close his doors against the one than the other. As a rule everything appears to be sacrificed to the personal convenience of Government officials, perfectly irrespective of what the loss to the public may be.