SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 33, 10 February 1915, Page 2

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY

THE AUCKLAND SHOPKEEPERS.

Teh Press Association. Auckland, February 1)

Hotwoen fifty and sixty shopkeepers attended a mooting to consider the possibility of having the Wednesday half-holiday restored. Mr Allred Moore, who occupied the chair, said he was sure that a very great majority of the shopkeepers were now in favor of restoring tile Wednesday half-holiday. The matter was really one of life and death for the small ■hopkeeper. In the larger shops ihe employees were being affected, in that when the pinch was felt it became necessary to discharge hands. There was a great deal of unemployment at the present time, and he thought that the opening of the shops on Saturday afternoon would do a great deal to alleviate the situation. Mr E. H. Thompson said that they had against them the employees who preferred Saturday, and who were numerically much stronger than the shopkeepers themselves. There were people interested in sports who since the introduction of Saturday closing had reaped a harvest, and there were people connected with ferries, picture shows, and many others who for obvious reasons preferred Saturday closing. In view of this being so. he suggested that the shopkeepers might be able to effect a, compromise. He thought that most of them would willingly close for the whole of Wednesday if they might remain open on Saturday. He proposed a resolution that this meeting was prepared to concede the whole of Wednesday as ■i holiday if they were allowed to remain open on Saturday. ■ He wished it to be understood this was merely an expression of feeling of the meeting. When put the resolution was carried unanimously.