DEFINITION OF "EVENING"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 201, 20 May 1919, Page 4

DEFINITION OF "EVENING"

LABOUR DEPARTMENT'S APPEAL ALLOWED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, May 15. Judgmont was delivered in the Supreme Court, this morning by Mr. Justice Herdman in'the appeal by tho Labour Department against the decision given at 't'imaru by Mr. Day, S.M., who had decided against till) Department ih a prosecution ■ brought by it against Manning and Dawson, grocers, of Timaru. for having kept their premises open after 7 p.m. on December 31, 1918, contiary to the hour of closing fixed by the requisition of those engaged in tho trade. The caso turned on the meaning of the.word "evening," occurring in seclion 25 of the Shops and Offices Act. 19(18, and its amendments, the Act itself containing ivi definition of the word. Under legislation passed in 1018, however. "evening" was defined as "the time of ilav nor earlier than 5 o'clock in the afternoon."

In allowing the appeal His Honour pointed out that since the Chief Justice had delivered judgment in Houldsworth v. l.ightfoot, tlio law had undergone a radical change, and what was then vague had been given definite meaning bv sub-section '11 of the War Legislation and Statute Law Amendment Act, 1918. It. would lie absurd, His Honour stated, to find on one'hnnd thai ;;rocers t through tlio medium of a requisition, could close at v" p.m. on working days, including New Year's Eve, and to decide on the other hand that because section 5 of the Ait permitted the employment of assistants till II p.m., tlio same grocers enjoyed the right to keep open beyond Ihe hour which tliev determined should be, the closing hour.