Letters To Editor: Farcical Easter trading laws

The laws about Easter are farcical. Why should the Government decide it's inappropriate for some shops to be open on a Christian holiday as opposed to a Muslim one?
I understand that it's nice to be able to spend time with one's loved ones but is it really worth a law forbidding shops from being open? Any shops open must pay the staff holiday pay. The delineation for what may and may not be open seem completely arbitrary. A dairy may be open as it is deemed to sell urgent necessities but a supermarket can't?
Also some "tourist" towns such as Queenstown are exempt. Is Napier not a tourist town? In this time of recession the Government ought to be encouraging shops to be open to stimulate the economy, not forcing them shut out of some misplaced sense of tradition.
The Easter liquor laws are archaic and unnecessary. In a country where 53.6 per cent identify themselves as Christian (NZ Census 2006) why should my right as an adult to purchase alcohol be curtailed because of a religion I don't follow?
NZ ought to immediately repeal these outdated laws and join the 21st century where we can let adults be adults and each follow our own conscience. Matt HutchinsonHastingsBelieve in ChristWhen I heard last week a plea for people who couldn't afford to buy Easter Eggs as the only way they celebrated Easter, I did not want to believe the truth behind this statement. But I am forced to believe it, as depression, a state of hopelessness, is very prevalent.
If you could believe in the Resurrection of Christ you too will know the meaning of rising up, and as Father Adonai did towards the end of Mass, giving Easter eggs to all the children, a balance of the spiritual and physical are met.
God loves us; let us use the gifts He has given us.
Mary Duggan
Hastings