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Historic beginnings for long weekend

 

BY JULIA WADE

20 MF-ParnellLabourday-243October’s Labour Day is a much-anticipated holiday, being the only long weekend after Queen’s Birthday in June, and a break before the rush of Christmas. 


However it is possible New Zealand’s three-day weekend or even the eight-hour working day would exist if not for the determined efforts from an 1800’s immigrant.
 
London-born carpenter and joiner, Samuel Duncan Parnell, and his wife sailed from England in September 1839 to New Zealand, disembarking at Britannia Beach, now Petone, in February 1840. On arriving, Parnell was approached by another passenger and shipping agent, George Hunter who asked the carpenter if he could build him a new store. 

“I will do my best,” Parnell replied. “But I must make this condition that on the job the hours shall only be eight for the day.”
Possibly astonished, Hunter argued that this was preposterous, but Parnell insisted.

“There are twenty-four hours per day given us,” he reasoned. “Eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves. I am ready to start to-morrow morning at eight o'clock, but it must be on these terms or none at all.” 

“You know Mr. Parnell,” Hunter persisted, “that in London the bell rang at six o'clock, and if a man was not there ready to turn to he lost a quarter of a day’s pay.” 

“We're not in London,” Parnell replied. 

Due to the scarcity of tradesmen in the young colony, Hunter agreed to Parnell's terms who later recorded his triumph in his journal, 'The first strike for eight hours a day the world has ever seen, was settled on the spot.'

Parnell withstood the pressure from other potential employers who tried to impose the traditional long hours, and encouraged other tradesmen and fresh immigrants to stand together in support of the eight-hour working day.
 
At a worker’s meeting in October 1840, the working hours of 8am-5pm were officially recognised and anyone known to breach the new custom was apparently hoisted into the harbours waters. A strike by Hutt Valley road builders in 1841 who were directed to work longer hours, further strengthened the eight-hour day.
 
The year 1890 marked New Zealand’s 50th jubilee of European settlement and on October 28, the country’s first annual Labour Day demonstration, Parnell was honoured for his 'noble efforts', proclaimed 'the father of the eight hours movement' by the citizens of Wellington, and led the march through the city.

Sadly a few weeks later, he became unwell and passed away on December 17, aged 80. Parnell was given a public funeral on December 20, attended by thousands and was buried at Wellington Public Cemetery.

Although the the eight-hour working day was now custom for tradesmen and labourers, the shorter day did not apply to employees in other working areas and a union campaign to urge the government to make eight-hours a law, began with Labour Day parades in October. Eight years later, in 1899 parliament declared Labour Day, the fourth Monday in October, a public statutory holiday, providing an occasion to pay tribute to Samuel D. Parnell and other pioneers of the eight-hour day, a right that New Zealanders were one of the first to have in the world. 

 Dialogue and information referenced via Wikipedia and nzhistory.govt.nz

Standing tall for fair working conditions, 'the father of the eight hours movement', carpenter Samuel Duncan Parnell. – PHOTO/Alexander Turnbull Library

“There are twenty-four hours per day given us. Eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves.”
- S.D Parnell

 
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