THREE HOURS ONLY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9094, 21 May 1908, Page 4

THREE HOURS ONLY.

We are pleased to note that the Mayorj (Mr P. L. Rollings) and the Council, at the meeting held last evening, expressed a unanimous opinion in favour of a holiday being observed on Saturday afternoon next from the hours of 2 o'clock till 5 o'clock. The Holidays Committee is, no doubt, a good institution, but on this occasion they have adoptee! an attitude that is not only entirely wrong, but is calculated to alienate sympathy with the object of thencreation. Football is not merely the national game of the dominion, but is a form of bport that should be reasonably encouraged in every way. Wellington, and it is not a hundred years since he achieved his greatest victory, told the people of England that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. The lesson to be learned from such an oracular utterance is clear and unmistakable. True, genuine and manly sport is not merely a matter of pleasure, but is of paramount importance to the

proper and sound development of national life. However, we feel confident that the Mayor's invitation, will be responded to unanimously. The fractious opposition of the Holidays Committee will be swept away in the maelstrom of public sentiment. *