Labour Day: Difference between revisions

In [[New Zealand]], Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October.<ref>{{cite web |title=First Labour Day celebrations |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/first-labour-day-celebrations |website=NZHistory |access-date=6 September 2021}}</ref> Its origins are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded [[Wellington]] colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter [[Samuel Parnell]]'s refusal to work more than eight hours a day. The first Labour Day in New Zealand was celebrated on October 28, 1890, which marked the first anniversary of the Maritime Council.<ref name="Labour Day NZ">{{cite web |title=Labour Day |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/labour-day |website=[[NZ History online]] |access-date=6 September 2021}}</ref>

The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either ''Labour Day'' or ''Eight-Hour Demonstration Day''.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} In 1899, the government legislated that the day be a public holiday fromthrough 1900the ''Labour Day Act of 1899''.<ref name="Labour Day NZ"></ref> The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910, the government stipulated that the holiday would be observed on the same day throughout the nation.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}