SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3131, 9 July 1917, Page 5

SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING

WELLINGTON PHARMACISTS TO CLOSE. There is a solid majority of the Wellington pharmacists in favour of closing their shops at 6 p.m. instead of at.B p.m. or 9 p.m. as is the case at present. The experiment of closing down at 6 p.m., and in lieu of late a night pharmacy, has been tried in many cities and towns in New Zealand, and never has any place reverted Ho the ola. method of keeping open until all hours. The. matter has been forced upon the attention of Wellington pharmacists by the shortage of experienced hands and the great difficulty in arranging meal reliefs. For the past two years or so pharmacists in Wellington have been, more or less, slaves of their businesses, never knowing, in some cases, what it was to have a night off from shop duty. A similar condition of affairs has been overcome by the establishment of night pharmacies in Gisborne, Napier, Hastings, Dannevirke, Hamilton, Wanganni, Frankton, Palmerston North (now: coming in), Hawera, Eketaliuna, alt the Wairnrapa towns, Christchurch, Timani, Oamnrii, Invercargill, and Westport. The niatter has successfully been taken up in Wellington by Mr. Charles Palliser. ■ Out of thirty-six pharmacies in the city, twenty-three were favourable to the change, and these are not allowing the grass to grow under their feet. TJie Pharmacy Board of New Zealand is assisting the local chemists. The board, having some capital to invest, has purchased the residence of Mr. W. Cooper, immediately to the north of Vivian Street, in Cambridge Terrace. The local pharmacists intend to form a little company, which will rent the place as a night pharmacy. The new pharmacy will not be a shop, but will be conducted purely and simply as professional premises' for the making up of prescriptions after 6 o'clock in the evening. To that end a manager is being advertised for at present. The law relating to night pharmacies decrees that no pharmacist shall dispense medicine or make up prescriptions after 6 p.m. within a radius of two miles of the night pharmacy, tho, distance to be taken by the nearest route' determined by the inspector. It is calculated that the centre of residential Wellington is about the Basin Reserve, which is font or five minutes' walk from the site of the night pharmacy, and as nearly as possible equi-distant from the different parts of the city.