SHOPPING HOURS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20103, 24 November 1939, Page 10

SHOPPING HOURS

POSITION IN WAIROA

FINALITY REACHED

DECISIONS 01' KOTAILERS

(Special lo lho Ilerald.) WAIROA, this da

Finality on several questions which have been exercising the minds of Wairoa shopkeepers of late was reached at a meeting of the Retailers’ Association on Wednesday evening. They include the hours of opening and' closing, Christinas and New Year holidays, carnival week holidays and the Anniversary Day holiday.

The meeting was perhaps the largest of its kind ever held in Wairoa. the . feature of it being the apparent. desire of all to co-operate in any questions affecting the retail trade of the town.

The president of the association, Air. R. Dryden, presided and extended a welcome to those present. It was. ho said, very encouraging to see the interest which was being displayed and. lie added that he could not remember a more representative gathering of retailors in. Wairoa. The question which evoked the keenest display of interest was the closing hour of shops on Friday evenings, but little difficulty was experienced in reaching finality on this and other points. The following were the hours decided upon:— Week days. 8.50 a.m. to 5.110 p.m. Saturdays. 8.50 a.m. to noon. Fridays. 8.50 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Tt was decided to forward the necessary requisition to the Department of Labour to enable the 9 o'clock closing on Friday evenings to be given effect to. It was decided also that the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve late shopping nights be Friday, December 22, and Friday, December 29, respectively. In connection with carnival week it was agreed that the shops should close at noon on Show Day and also on the first day of the races. Anniversary Day, which falls on January 22. it was agreed, should be observed as a holiday in the town on the second Monday in August. Letter From Union Secretary

In connection with the change over of the weekly half-holiday from Wednesday to Saturday, a letter was received from Mr. R. Cook. Napier, branch secretary of the Wellington Amalgamated Society of Shop Assistants Industrial Union of Workers, to the effect that while visiting Wairoa recently he had a talk with a great number of proprietors and managers of shops in Wairoa and everyone, with one exception, was very pleased with the change and was satisfied in his own mind that when it had been given a reasonable trial he would find that business would be as good or better than ever.

“From the assistants’ point of view,” the letter added, “they arc all delighted at the change and arc now a very happy bunch of workers as they feel that a day and a-half’s break at one time is much nicer than a balf-dav in the middle and Sunday at the end of the week. "I think you are now the last town in the North Island to make this decision, so to all intents and purposes this is now universal in this island and we wish you every success to the new half-holiday.”

A petition signed by 59 shop assistants was received by the association requesting that it do all in its power to retain the Saturday half-holiday in the town.

It was pointed out by Mr. C. Watson that only those assistants in the shops affected had signed the petition. The names in tire list did not include any of those engaged in confectionery shops, butchers’ establishments and firms of that nature. .