NEXT WEEK'S HOLIDAYS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 329, 16 June 1911, Page 4

NEXT WEEK'S HOLIDAYS

BUNGLE AT DI'XEDIN. By Telegraph.—Press Association 1 . Duncdin, Yesterday. Things in Dunedin in connection with the Coronation have reached ft startling impasse. No firms working under awards will observe Thursday as a holiday. It has been suggested that the Government should proclaim Coronation Day on Friday, the Prince of Wales' birthday.

PROTESTS IX DUNEDIN. Dunedin, Last Night. A largely attended meeting of employers, convened by the president of the Chamber of Commerce, was held this afternoon to discuss the tnreatencd deadlock in connection with the observance of Coronation Day aiiu Prince of Wales' Birthday.

The following resolution was passedi and instructions given to have a cbpy forwarded to the Minister of Labor and the various chambers of commerce, "That in the event of the Minister declining to recede from the position takes up by the Labor Department, the Mayor be requested to declare Friday a holiday in Dunedin in place of Thursday, on the occasion of the coronation of His Majesty King George V.. and that the Government be requested to give euch instructions in connection with all Government departments in Dunedin as will conform to this resolution."

At a meeting this evening of various committees set up in connection with the carrying out of Coronation celebrations, the subject of the holiday deadlock was revived.

A telegram which had just been received from the Hon. A. Millar by the Otago Employers' Association was read to the meeting. In the course of the telegram the Minister stated that the Association must be aware that it was improper for the Labor Department to interfere with any award of a court. Coronation Day was a day proclaimed, not by the New Zealand "Government but bv the Imperial Government, and it watr being observed all over the. Empire. If it was laid down as a principle that any Government department should have power to suspend the law, where was the line going to be drawn? He regretted the unfortunate clash, but did not see how it could be avoided. Coronation Day was not a recurring holidayi nor could it have .been foreseen that th« two davs would follow one another.

A motion was put before the meeting tlint Coronation Day be observed on Thursday, and tnis was seconded. Mr. A. Chisholm (president of the Otago Employers' Association) strongly opposed the motion, and after a desultory discussion the Mayor (who presided) threw out a, suggestion that if anyone was prosecuted for employing labor on Friday, let them pay the fine out of the common purse. The meeting agreed with the suggestion, and the Employers' Association accepted it. This means that retailers will now, it is to be assumed, observe Thursday as Coronation Day, hut there is still likely to be trouble through them keeping open on Friday, where such fiction is opposed to the provisions of the Act or to Arbitration Court awards.