SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2386, 16 February 1915, Page 7

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

Sir,—l notice m Mr. Hannah's reply to Mr. Pearson that the Saturday half-holiday has been the cause of several shops being closed in Karangahape Road, Auckland. That I do not agree with. : Previous to the Saturday closing there w6re several shops empty in the same street. Why? Firstly, because the rents and. other expenses wero too high for some of the business people who had the shops. Secondly, Karangahajje Road has extended and a good many new shops have been built, and in some instances these are cheaper than, the old shops. Thirdly, the trade done by the shops in Auckland has declined during the last two or three years. I know one business man who left one end of the same street to go to tho other end. This cost him £1400 for alterations, and he also left the other lease behind him and on his hands; and onco a shop or shops are left like that 'it is a hard job to got any ; businoss -man, good or bad, to open and start any legitimate business. To show a margin on his own side with the heavy rents and expenses he has to take a big risk. That is why there are so many shops empty in Karangah.ape Road and other parts of Auckland. And I 'suppose the same reason applies to Wellington. My own observation has enabled me to see a good many shops in Wellington empty—and no Saturday half-holiday. The business man mentioned above has two shops and has told me ho prefers the Saturday to the Wednesday. Several that I knew were against the closing, but since it came in would not change back. These are not large houses, but small and medium'. What I have no-

ticed js that when. the shops are open on Friday nights late people spend part of Saturday's money, I don't say all, and at the same time there is a little busy life that breaks the, monotony of the week.—l am, etc., ARTHUR HAYES (late of Auckland) Wellington, February 14, 1915.