SMALL SHOPS’ CLOSING TIME

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 137, 31 August 1927, Page 13

SMALL SHOPS’ CLOSING TIME

AN EXTENSION LIKELY shopkeepers who have been so hard hit by the enforcement of the 5.30 closing hour have a good prospect of having the restriction lifted. The Auckland branch of the New Zealand Small Shopkeepers’ Association met last evening to hear the report of the president, Mr. D. J. Kenny, and the secretary, Mr. Hill, on their trip to Wellington to offer evidence before the Labour Bills Committee of the House. The association, said Mr. Kenny, had fought for the shopkeepers’ right to keep open until any reasonable hour so long as labour was not employed in the shop. They were likely to get the hour altered from 5.30 p.m. to 8 o’clock at least. At present all shops, unless exempt, have to close at 5.30 except confectioners, dairies, tobacconists and fruiterers.

Mr. Kenny read an article which appeared in THE SUN some time ago on the ruinous effects of early closing. The article had been sent out with a circular to each member of the House and Mr. Kenny read the three replies he had received. Mr. M. J. Sayers, president of the Confectioners’ Association, attended and stated that he was glad to have the assurance of the shopkeepers that they were not opposing the confectioners’ request for 11 o’clock closing. A member raised the point whether the two associations could not join hands to further their interests. Mr. Sayers expressed the opinion that the two bodies had better go on in a loose affiliation.