THE HALF-HOLIDAY QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1921, Page 4

THE HALF-HOLIDAY QUESTION.

The half-holiday question is causing eonsidera'ble interest in Taranaki at the present moment in view of the poll which takes place on Wednesday next. In New Plymouth there is little or no difference of opinion as to the advisability of changing the date from Thursday to Saturday, and the same may be said of both Waitara and Inglewood. This unanimity has no doubt come about largely by the belief that the present dual half-holiday is unsatisfactory, the professional offices, stock auctioneer?, garages, and manufactories observing Saturday, and the shopkeepers and others Thursday. There is no likelihood of the former changing to Thursday 1 , and if there is to be a uniform half-holiday it must therefore be Saturday. In the south there is evidently no such unanimity. The majority of the shopkeepers and traders in Hawera, Eltham and Stratford evidently believe that a change to Saturday will be a retrograde one, involving all in considerable loss; hence they are opposing Saturday with al] their power. Other sections are juS)t as vigorously contending for the change. Stratford, of course, has recently made the change, and unfortunately at a time when business was slacker than usual because of the general depression. A poll, however, is being taken there, and

it is competent for the town to revert to Thursday. This difference of view on the part of the southern towns is unfortunate, for there can be no gainsaying the advantage of having a uniform half-holiday in Taranaki, whose best interests are not served by the halfholiday being observed on three different days, as at present. Opunake, Kaponga and Manaia have not waited for

a lead from the bigger towns. They •simply declared for Saturday, and evidently are satisfied with the results. So,

we are sure, will the neighboring bigger towns when once the change is authorised by the burgesses, as we hope will be the case. Hamilton is p’erhaps the busiest farmers’ town of the provincial towns in the North Island, and it has not suffered in the slightest degree by changing to Saturday. Indeed, the very business men who subscribed money and fought the Saturday half-holiday would to-day, so they informed us, be the first to resist any reversion to the midweek holiday. The farmers accepted the situation quite philosophically, and now come in during the week. Business did not suffer, and business cannot suffer either in Taranaki. There is a natural aversion to interfering with an old custom, and perhaps it is this conservatism in most of us, more than anything else, which accounts for the present opposition to Saturday. The same trade will be done, but it will be distributed over the week, which will really be better for businesses. The fact that the professions and stock auctioneering firms already close on Saturday in the southern Taranaki towns vitiates the argument that the farmers will be seriously inconvenienced by Saturday half-holi-day being made general. On physical grounds Saturday is the much better dlay. for it gives a continuous spell (except to the hard-working producer), instead of breaking into the week. Concern has been felt for the country school children who now come into town with their parents, but motors and good roads

have brought the towns very much closer, and the children, it must not be overlooked, have considerable holidays during the course of the year. Every important centre in the North Island has change! to Saturday, and in each case nothing would persuade it to revert to- the mid-week, and we trust that Taranaki will fall into line by voting for Saturday on Wednesday next.