ANZAC DAY

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 8

ANZAC DAY

SHOP REGULATIONS AN INTERESTING CASE INTERPRETATION OF ACT , (Per United Press Association.) Rotorua, May' 26. A case of unusual importance was heard in the Magistrate’s Court before Mr Paterson, S.M. ■ Several shopkeepers were’charged under the Shops and Offices Act -with keeping open on the statutory half-holiday in the week in which Easter Monday and Anzac Day fell. The Shops and Offices Act provided that where shops are closed on two working days during the week, they may remain open on the day of the statutory half-holiday. A working day was defined by the Act as any day other than Sunday. The Labour Department contended that the effect of the Anzac Day Act was to make Anzac Day a Sunday and therefore was not a working day as defined by the Shops and Offices Act. After referring to the various Acts involved, the court decided, after quoting various Acts, to dismiss the informations upon the grounds that the Anzac Day Act provided that the day' should be observed as if it were Sunday, but this did not make it a Sunday and quoted from the decision of the late Sir William Sims that -the effect of the Anzac Day Act was simply that if anything had to be done on Sunday, it also had to be done on Anzac Day, and if a thing had not to be done on a Sunday, then it had not to be done on Anzac Day. This was very different to making the day a Sunday.