Labour Day

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 491, 22 October 1928, Page 1

Labour Day

HISTORICAL REVIEW Significant Celebration

UNDER its present name Labour Day has a history going back but. two decades. Under the original label of Eight Hour Demonstration Day, however, it was more significant and expressed the aspirations of a very considerable number of New Zealanders.

YHE first efforts in Auckland to ameliorate the lot of the wages men were made by the building trades in 1851, the objective being a “four o’clock Saturday.” To workers used to an almost universal Saturday halfholiday, the idea of asking for the right to ‘knock off” at 4 p.m. on Saturday may seem timid, but the powers-that - were regarded the demand as revolutionary, and it was only after a stiff fight that the advance was made. The demand for an eight-hour day arose much later, being sponsored by a man who had been imprisoned for being a Chartist in England, and for stressing the right of the working man to have a vote and a say in the government of the country in which he was born. Men well known in the political history of the Dominion were associated with the 40 years’ struggle to the reduction of the working \ hay to eight hours. As late as 1889 the bakers in Auckland worked 120 hours a week. They were organised by Mr. Jennings, a compositor, later member of the Legislative Council, and still later of the Lower House. The first trade union in Auckland was the Amalgamated Society °f Engineers, which obtained its garter from England on May 29, 1863. In 1876 a Trades and Labour Council was formed at a meeting held in CVanricarde Hotel. The building tood in Wyndham Street until it was < * own to make room for The Sun One of the first tasks of the council was the formation of a WorkMen’s Club—a body that still aadst* In 1883 the trade union movement as galvanised into action by a pro- °* .***© Government to bring in .UOO Chinese workers. The AuckTrades Council demanded a £IOO Poll tax, or in the alternative a bonus e very Asiatic who would leave New **ealand. Parliament yielded to the Pressure, but in the same session tL W out tlie Sight-hour Day Bill. Present-day Aucklanders owe some““ng to the early trades’ council, for 11 was only as a result of determined °PPosition by the Trades Council to a Proposal of the Auckland City Counto sell the cricket ground and that that fine area is still pre**ryed for the use of the public. Eight-hour Day Demonstration Day

was not always observed in October. Dow© to the late 'nineties it was a feature of Anniversary Day, January 29. The proposal to change it to October 28 was made by Mr. J. A. Millar, afterwards Minister of the Crown, but at that time secretary of the Dunedin Seamen’s Union. He had organised the Maritime Council, and wished to perpetuate the date of its founding as October 28, 1889. The early Bight-hour Day demonstrations were precisely what the name implied. The trade unionists paraded under their union banners, each of which was proudly carried by two stalwarts, while two more marched ahead with guy ropes in hand, and two more steadied the banner from behind. Some of these elaborately symbolistic banners were 20 feet square, and required much effort to hold aloft even in a gentle breeze. GOOD IMPRESSIONS The picturesque processions have faded away. The name “Eight-hour Day” was changed to "Labour Day,” and the cloak of respactability was thrown over the previously much criticised labour agitator. Apart from all political significance, Labour Day has some meaning. The K 5 years of trade union effort in New Zealand has left its impression in public schools, publicly-owned services, social legislation, the extension of the franchise, a broad national outlook, and undoubtedly a lessened death-rate, due to the improvement of the conditions of the bulk of the populace. All these originated in "labour demands,” and as decades have drifted past have been incorporated in our legislation and adopted as essentials of our social system To-day, sympathetic remembrance may be given the numerous men and women who braved strenuous opposition in voicing thetr beliefs and hopes for a better country. TO-DAY’S EVENTS Many sports gathering were held today, including the time-honoured sports in the Domain. Bowling clubs are holding matches, and special tournaments are in progress at Grey Lynn and Carlton. The golf clubs have also arranged matches, tile chief eyent being "the continuation of the Maungakiekie Club’s tournament at Titirangl. Many racing attractions are provided, several trotting and racing clubs within reach of the city holding meetings. At Whangarei the Northland Trotting Club is having a day’s rac- ! ing. and in the Waikato the Cambridge Hunt Club is holding its meeting.