EARLY CLOSING ON SATURDAY.

Evening Star, Issue 2828, 12 March 1872, Page 2

EARLY CLOSING ON SATURDAY.

To the Editor.

Dear Mr Editor, —I was well pleased to see that you have promised to do all you can to secure a half-holiday for the young men and women who are employed in the drapery shops in town. I have been in Dunedin now for fully three years, and unfortunately my husband died before we were a year in the place, so that I am mainly dependent on my two daughter for a living, who work in two of the leading shops in town. I can never be too grateful for the way they have tried to assist me since their poor father died, and the only thing that gives me any concern about them is that they are kept so late on Saturday nights. Would you believe me, Mr Editor, that there are some Saturdays that they are not home till about eleven o’clock at night, and I have known them kept, though I must say only occasionally, till twelve o’clock, so that I have had to wait up anxiously for them till Sunday morning, thinking every foot that passed my door was sure to be theirs. If they were working in the same place it would be bad enough ; but surely with a little forethought every shop could arrange to have the work sooner done —and look at the relief it would be to me to have my daughters home at a reasonable hour, besides giving them time to have a walk in the country, which they so much need, as I notice with pain (though they never complain) that their cheeas have not the same healthy color they used to have. I don’t pretend to be more anxious about my daughters than other folks, but would you like, Mr Editor, any of your daughters, or the daughters of anyone you had any respect for, to be compelled, through the bad system of keeping the shops so late open, to find their way home alone at about twelve o’clock every Saturday night ? After waiting anxiously for them, and straining my ears to the utmost to hear their welcome steps, I have often put on my cloak and gone out to meet them, as I became so anxious that I really could not settle in the house. 1 can assure you, Mr Editor that 1 have often passed my daughters on the road having mistaken them for much older people as they were walking so very slowly and feeble-like ; but whenever they happened to see me first I have seen them walking at a brisker pace just to hide their thorough weariness. Whenever I met the one the first question she would ask was if her sister was home, and when I said “ no ” she would then offer to go back with me to meet her, and my heart was just like to burst at thinking that two sisters who were so fond of one another and so kind to their mother should be exposed to the jeers and importunities of bad men. I trust their early training will be enough to bear them up under all temptations, but wo are all frail creatures at the best, and, 1 think you will agree with mo Mr Editor, in saying that the shopkeepers’ cond ict in keeping their workers so late is most unchristianbke. Now, Mr Editor, if you will agitate this question in your widely read paper, lam sure you will get hearty thanks from many more mothers besides me. I could scarcely tell you what a relief it would be to me if the half-holiday movement is successful, so do try your very best to make it so. Yours, &c., An Anxious Mother.