Too many holidays too close together

Public holidays - do we need all the disruption, ask PATRICK GOWER and ARNOLD PICKMERE.

New Zealand is just ending its traditional summer holiday season - the one that starts with a mad rush to Christmas and retailers praying their sales will go through the roof.

Then, with most office and factory doors slammed shut, and Christmas Day survived, countless thousands of us head for the sea, distant beaches and the hills.

Some time later, often quite a long time after the New Year, people start filtering back to work. Just as things are coming to life again, Wellington shuts for its Anniversary Day on January 22, a lifeless capital unable to respond even to e-mails.

Today it is the turn of the upper North Island. Nevertheless, thousands of children will be back at school tomorrow. Then, next week, with the term struggling to life, they will get Tuesday off.

How cast in concrete are these seemingly ill-designed arrangements?

Most of these days are set as holidays for a reason. Wellington's anniversary day, for example, is on the third Monday in January. The first observance of the day was in 1841, marking the anniversary of the arrival in Wellington of the ship Aurora with some 150 New Zealand Company settlers on January 22, 1840, after a four-month voyage from England. Seems fair enough.

But many other regions - Canterbury, Hawkes Bay, Southland, Marlborough, Taranaki, Westland (the list goes on) - have different days as their anniversary day, scattered through the year.

The Constitution Act of 1852 established six provinces; Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago. A relic of that remains in the provincial anniversary holidays. No one authority set these dates, and some were subject to change and variation locally.

Graham Shaw, a researcher at the National Library in Wellington, describes finding out why each province had its anniversary day on a particular day as an "extraordinarily complex job."

"Most have been set up to mark the arrival of the first European settlers but have since been changed for one reason or another to fit with other things. No one really knows."

What about Auckland?

The reason most of us have a day off today is because Auckland Anniversary Day is one of 11 public holidays prescribed in the Holidays Act 1981.

Auckland's anniversary day was first proclaimed on January 29, 1842, with a regatta on the harbour under the patronage of Governor Hobson.

But why January 29?

A. W. Reed's Auckland, the City of the Seas says that while many cities could celebrate the arrival of their first European settlers with ease, Auckland had too many dates to choose from.

The township was already in existence and the Union Jack hoisted on Pt Britomart when, on January 27, 1842, Willoughby Shortland announced from the Colonial Secretary's Office in Auckland 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."

The day is now always celebrated on a Monday.

So, what's wrong with having a holiday anyway?

Nothing, if it was at a better time. Mayor Christine Fletcher feels Auckland's birthday-cum-anniversary should be changed, along with the traditional holiday structure.

"Our anniversary day should be the kick-start of our holiday season, not come at the end. Long weekends at this time of the year are disruptive for business, retail and schools.

"Our current system with schools closing for the summer holidays, businesses taking a break and people celebrating Christmas and holiday all at once is far too stressful for families. We take these holidays when the weather is too fickle and finish when it settles down."

She wants Christmas celebrated as a separate event and people's main holidays to start a month or so later.

Do the broken weeks affect business?

The breaks at the end of January add to the loss of momentum suffered by business over the Christmas break, says Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett. It is sure to have an economic cost.

"The drawback of having so many holidays immediately after this [Christmas] break is that it is hard to gather momentum and motivate staff when you keep having four-day weeks."

As New Zealand starts to compete globally, such holidays restrict our ability to deal with people abroad.

"We have to recognise that these holidays mean not only are we unavailable to the world but we are so slow getting up and running at the start of the year when we should be pumping."

Mr Barnett says that regionally people need to celebrate, but it might be better in the middle of the year - better for business and worn-out workers as well.

What about schools?

Some secondary schools have already taken the Waitangi Day problem into their own hands to achieve a less messy start to this year's first term.

They have brought their start date forward so students do not take a long Waitangi weekend with an illegally taken Monday.

With Waitangi Day falling on Tuesday, February 6, this year, some schools are starting early to avoid the temptation of students taking a four-day "holiday" and losing a day at school.

"We start a couple of days early so we've got those in the bank for later," says Penrose High School principal Richard Thornton. "We'll use one so the Monday before Waitangi Day is an 'official' holiday.

The other will be used for a long weekend in the middle of the year when the kids are tired and there's a lot of sport on."

This does not mean he doesn't see room for debate on the timing of school holidays.

"The irony is that the weather is always better when the kids get back to school. But changing holidays is a debate that will go on for ever."

Mr Thornton is not alone. Many teachers argue against having to teach pupils in the best summer weather, when their charges tend to doze off in the heat.

What are the 11 statutory days under the Holidays Act?

1. Christmas Day.

2. Boxing Day.

3. New Year's Day.

4. January 2.

The custom of holding these four holidays on a Monday if they fall over the weekend began early last century, apparently following New South Wales and South Australia.

5. Waitangi Day: the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi is always celebrated on February 6.

6. Good Friday.

7. Easter Monday.

8. Anzac Day is always celebrated on April 25.

Anzac Day and the Easter days have a curious relationship. The first commemoration of the Gallipoli landings was a solemn memorial service on April 25, 1916, which that year happened to be the day after Easter Monday.

It was not known as Anzac Day until 1920, when April 25 was proclaimed as a public holiday with that name.

Last year Anzac Day directly followed Easter Monday, producing a long holiday. That will not happen again until 2079 because the date of Easter varies each year.

Easter Sunday is marked on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox, which falls on March 21. Easter Sunday can fall no earlier than March 22 and no later than April 25.

9. Queen's Birthday (first Monday in June).

This is the official date for the Queen's birthday. Her actual birthday is April 21.

10. Labour Day.

Even Labour Day, which became the country's first public holiday on October 12, 1899, celebrating the eight-hour day, has changed. Initially it was held on the second Wednesday in October, moving to the fourth Monday of October in 1910.

11. Anniversary Day for each area.

What happens in other countries?

New Zealand lags behind other countries with our 15 days of annual leave and 11 statutory holidays. Austria has 25 days and 13 statutory holidays, while Australia has 20 days of annual leave and 13 statutory holidays.

We are by no means the worst off - Ireland has 15 days of annual leave and just nine statutory holidays. Britain has 10 statutory holidays.

The United States, by contrast, has no legislative requirement for any employers to give any days off. While most offer days off on national holidays such as July 4 and Christmas Day, they are not compelled to.

Do other countries have the same mess of dates

Pretty much. Apart from dates like Christmas, Easter and New Year, other holidays show little cohesion with the statutory holidays of other countries.

And while Australia Day last Tuesday (January 26) was nationally observed, there are plenty of other holidays observed at different times by various Australian states.

What might stop us from moving our holidays around

Probably not much more than getting enough people to agree. With a coalition Government that is a political matter.

In 1997 the National Party Labour Minister Max Bradford suggested making when people take their 11 statutory holidays negotiable.

He also talked of trading some holidays in for cash.

After a storm of public opposition, he was forced to retreat, accepting that the costs of political reform were too high.

That was the same year Prime Minister Jim Bolger floated changing Labour Day to New Zealand Day, a proposal not heard since.