KEY POINTS:
This never feels like a holiday weekend. Many of us have just had a summer holiday and this one seems superfluous, or we are still on holiday and feel cheated somehow. It is not as though we need to observe something on Monday. Nothing particularly significant happened on
January 29, unlike the national holiday just eight days later.
This is a long weekend to commemorate the founding of Auckland province, which included all of the country north of Taupo but was not established in any sense on January 29 and no longer exists. The provinces, as they were formed in 1852, were abolished in 1875.
The others have persisted with anniversaries chosen for a significant event in their settlement, such as the arrival of a ship bearing their first settlers. Auckland, the national capital until 1865, adopted a date chosen for a national purpose fully 10 years before the provinces were formed.
A proclamation from the Colonial Secretary's Office in Auckland on January 27, 1842, announced that "Saturday the 29th instant, being the second anniversary of the establishment of this colony, his Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that a day be held as a general holiday on which occasions the public offices will be closed".
On that day two years earlier HMS Herald, bearing the Governor-to-be, Captain Hobson, dropped anchor in the Bay of Islands. If that event, rather than the ceremony at Waitangi eight days later, marks "the establishment of this colony", the proclamation tells its own story about the contemporary attitude to the Treaty.
Hardly something, many would say, that we should celebrate today.
Never mind, most would reply. It is a holiday and we cannot have too many of them, can we?
Most people do not run a business employing others. Most of the present Government have no personal experience of managing a payroll. They have put through legislation making it compulsory for employees to take leave in lieu of public holidays and to be paid penal rates into the bargain. On top of that, they have raised the minimum annual holiday entitlement from three weeks to four from April 1.
Only employers, particularly small employers, know the cost of the Government's kindness. If they are already giving four weeks' leave to some employees, they will face demands for five weeks to maintain the margin. One more week for everyone does not sound very much until a manager multiplies it by the number employed and tries to maintain the same production. Small business operators are now having to make some hard calculations about the staff they can carry after April Fool's Day.
Holidays are necessary and good, but it does not follow that the more of them we have, the better. In addition to the new statutory minimum four weeks, we have 11 public holidays a year. That is not out of line with other countries. Canada has 10 public holidays, South Africa 12. Australia has 13, with 20 days' annual leave. The United States goes to the other extreme, enforcing no particular holidays. Independence Day, July 4, Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and even Christmas Day carry no statutory obligation.
All our public holidays are defined by acts of Parliament and the dates are specified for all except the provincial anniversary days. So we must have one by law, but we could choose another day. Why not the day before or after February 6, the day it should have been?
