THE HALF-HOLIDAY QUESTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 27 April 1907, Page 2

THE HALF-HOLIDAY QUESTION

LABOR DEPARTMENT'S CIRCULAR EXPLAIXED. ONLY ''FACTORIES,'' FEMALES ANI.) UNDER-ACE LAKOR AFFECTED. MISA'PPiiEIIEX.S'iON CLEAIiF!) AWAY. Willi reference to the consternation created in town by tl„. circular receive,! by factories and irndc<ppople on Tliursday morning regarding the Natiirdav half-holiday question, it appears I tint the complaints made iO the Minister o; iialive Ali'airs by the local deputation was based upon a lnisuiulcr.-lauding, due probably to an obscurely-worded circular. Mr 11. Willis, the local Inspector of Factories., yesterday interview;! practically all the employers of labor nfccteil, or who thought they were affected, and, to the great majoriiy at least, satisfactorily explained the position. The Labor Dcpartmenl, Says Mr Willis, lias not the slightest intention of disturbing exisiing conditions villi regard to shops and their employees. Section

X\ of the Factories Act referred to states that all women ami girls, and all buys under IS years of age. employed in lietories, must have the holiday from one o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Shopkeepers, therefore, are not all'ccted in the least; though, when a factory is run in connection with a business, the section applies in so far as females and boys are concerned. In a tailor's establishment, with a tailor's shop in front, ami tailoresses employed in the rear, the tailoresses must have a holiday on Saturdays from one o'clock. The Act seems to be so framco, however, as not to oppress shopkeepers, for in case of a butcher employing boys partly in the factory, and partly in the shop, they are regarded by the Act as shop assistants, and so not affected by the provisions of the Factories Act regarding the holiday.

MERELY ADMINISTERING THE LAAV WHY THE CONCESSION WAS ENDED INTERVIEW Willi HON. J. A. MILLAR. Interviewed on the matter by a "News" reporter on the Breakwater train last night, the lion. J. A. Millar pointed out that the Victories Act laid it down hard and fass that a Saturday half holiday must be observed. By some means that provision had be;>n suspended in some 18 or W town in New Zealand, to the extent that they were allowed, to observe the half-holiday on other than Saturday. During the last two months, said Mr Millar, he had been called upon to administer the law in a fair and impartial manner. The other ilay he had been interviewed by a deputation which asked him to suspend the operation of an award of the Arbitration Court. He had also been asked to suspend the operation of certain clauses of the Shops and Ollices Act. He had declined to do either, and had pointed out to the deputation that by granting their requests, he would be doing an illegal act, and also that they were asking for what must be a dangerous practice—that the Ministry should have the right to suspend at will any law. passed by Parliament. "Later on," sard, the Minister, "I received a notification that I myself was allowing the law to bo broken by permitting the Saturday half-holiday provided for under the Factories Act not being observed in certain places. I then said that so long as I was Minister of the Crown, the law must be fairly and impartially observed anil if it was found that the law acted in any way oppressively, it would be for Parliament to amend the law." So long, therefore, said Mr Millar, as the Saturday lialf-holiuay for factories remained the Statute law, he was determined to see that the law was carried out. He had accordingly, and as a result of these representations to him, notified the officers of the Labor Department to issue a circular to all those who had been observing other than Saturday as the half-holiday in factories, and in future Saturday would be observed until Parliament altered the law.

PROTEST FROM GORE. THE. MINISTER'S REPLY. Per Press Association. Gore, April 20. A meeting of Gore retailers forwarded a protest to the Minister for labor against the proposed change in the halfholiday for work-rooms attached to retail premises to Saturday, and asking that the present arrangements be al-) lowed to continue. The Hon. Mr Millav replied: I regret I cannot do as you request. The Factories Act provides that Saturday shall be observed as the holiday, and as I have to administer the law, not make it, I have no option but to insistt on the law being observed, leaving Parliament, who made the law, to alter it if it thinks lit.

INVERCARGILL UP K ARMS, Invercargill, 'April 20. The Southland Employers' Association lias decided to hold n big meeting of protest on Monday night against any alteration in the present system of obscr\*( ing Wednesday as the half-holiday for shops and factories. It is proposed also to have a petition and protest signed.