On which date is Labour Day observed in New Zealand?

New Zealand observes Labour Day on the fourth Monday in October.

The holiday commemorates the campaign for an eight-hour working day, an important goal of nineteenth-century New Zealand workers. The movement is especially associated with carpenter Samuel Parnell, who argued in Wellington in 1840 that a working day should be divided into eight hours of work, eight hours of recreation, and eight hours of rest.

New Zealand first celebrated Labour Day as a public holiday in 1899. The date has changed historically, but the modern observance is fixed on the fourth Monday of October, creating a three-day holiday weekend.

New Zealand’s Labour Day is therefore different from the U.S. Labor Day, which falls on the first Monday in September. It is also distinct from May 1 observances used in many countries around the world.