The Star KAIKOURA, NOVEMBER 1, 1892.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XII, Issue 87, 1 November 1892, Page 2

The Star KAIKOURA, NOVEMBER 1, 1892.

The prospects of the shop assistants of this place enjoying a half holiday each week does not appear to have occasioned any jubilation in business circles. Perhaps, it may be, business men do not enjoy the prospect of having to give their assistants a weekly adjournment. However, the “ The Shop and ShopAssistants Act ” of last session requires that every keeper of a shop in which goods are exposed or offeted for sale by retail shall give the assistants employed by him, or her, a half holiday from the hour of one o’clock in the afternoon on some working day in each week, except when a general public holiday is de-

clared or observed on a working day in any week. The/thopkeepers of this place are now required to at once confernj with the statute, the Inspector of

Factories, who is the Inspector undej> the Act, being directed to see that the law is complied with. It is better that all the business people should agree upon the observance of one day in each week, instead of each one selecting a day in harmony with his own wishes. Wednesday being the weekly mail day for overland correspondence is deemed unsuitable, awl objection is taken to Saturday on the score of inconvenience to country buyers—though that objection would soon vanish, and Saturday would, in time, prove advantageous to all. It therefore appears that Thursday best suits employers here. As to tb&MWßßffion granted tol&pp, assistants, it commends itself to all ®Sio have any sympathy for their fellow beings ; to all who have truly humane aspirations and desires. On utilitarian grounds it also meets with responsive echo. An assistant who has his employer’s interests at heart, and every servant should have that, is better fitted to discharge his duties after obtaining health giving relaxation,, which is of recuperative value to man’s physical powers. When allshops are closed nothing is lost to the sellers, and the interests of vendors doriot suffer.

We hope that no one will offer any obstruction to making the half holiday movement a genuine success. 'Phe cessation from labor will give a valuable return in increased vital energy. WBte business men are called upon by law to give their assistants a half-holiday, the employers of domestics might also consider the case of that hard working, class: and many a husband should be mindiul of the toil which falls upon the shoulders of she who shares his sorrows and joys—very often a large proportion of the farmer anQjnone of the latter.