SHOPS, OFFICES, AND FACTORIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2057, 7 December 1907, Page 2

SHOPS, OFFICES, AND FACTORIES.

NEW LEGISLATION. SOME IMPORTANT CHANGES. Copies of the “Shops and Offices Act Amendment Act, 1907,” .and of tlie “Factories Act Amendment Act, 1907,” which recently became law, have been forwqgded to the local representative - of the Labor Department. Mr. A. Donald. ' SHOPS AND OFFICES. _ Tlie new Act provides that in refreshment rooms the half-holiday can bo given as from 2 o’clock instead of 1 o’clock as provided in other cases. Florists need not close on the statutory half-holiday, but must give a half-holiday to assistants on some dav of the week. All hotel assistants (including bar assistants) must have a half-holiday on some.day of tlie week, but it need not start till 2 o’clock. FACTORIES. ' A ne w section in the Factories Act , provides machinery for altering the half-holiday for boys under IS and. women from Saturday to the day on which the shop closes. In section 14 tlie old Act is amended by providing in connection with the .amount of wages payable in one week that for tlie purpose of calculating wages a week cannot ibe broken. STRICT ENFORCEMENT. Mr. 'Donald states that lie'has received instructions to ‘enforce rigidly the provisions of the new Acts. In. connection with, Chinese occupiers of factories, tlie Department demands that all records of such factories shall bo kept in English. The Inspectors have also been instructed to carefully inquire into the bona tides of any Chinese partnership which is alleged to exist for tho carrying on of ia .factory. Inspectors are also called uponto see when the tobacconists’ shops in a town are closed bv general requisition at a certain hour, that tobacco is not sold in other shops outside those hours.