DOMINION DAY FARCE.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 47, 26 September 1911, Page 2

DOMINION DAY FARCE.

ON Monday there was a halfhearted celebration of the day when New Zealand became a “ Dominion.” The business world did not observe it, but in order that business might be interfered with as much as possible the banks closed and some country towns were made to smart by the partial shutting up of the post-offices and the complete withdrawal of telephone facilities. There seems to be no justification whatever for this, because beyond giving a few officials a holiday which they do not specially deserve, and probably do not want, not a soul is benefitted, not even the soul that may be supposed to be enshrined in the magniloquent idea of Dominion ! To attend to give the date an importance exceeding that, of the anniversary of the foundae ; ; of the colony is fatuous in the extreme ; to make it an occasion for annoying and irritating/the bulk of the business people..-is worse than fatuous ;it borders on the criminal. In the larger centres the Government dare not play such tricks —not even in Hamilton —and ministers should not be permitted to perpetuate such absurdities in these smaller urban communities with impunity. A strong and united objection should at least be made, and we had hoped that the Chamber of Commerce would take the initiative in a policy of ardent protest. It may not yet be too late to move. Te Awamutu has suffered frequently from the exercise of the postal propensity to pounce upon every excuse for a holiday. Bankers we can pardon, knowing how shockingly overworked they are, but why the department of post and telegraphs should.be so greedy of leisure is past finding out.