S.M. GIVES RULING ON SHOPS’ HOURS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 342, 1 May 1928, Page 12

S.M. GIVES RULING ON SHOPS’ HOURS

CLASSIFICATION FOR CLOSING TIMES IN SUBURBAN AREAS

With the object of furnishing a guide to city and suburban shopkeepers who wish to obtain exemption from the hours provisions of the Shops and Offices Act, Mr, E. C. Cutten, S.M., gave a decision at the Magistrate’s Court to-day. The right to apply for this exemption was granted under an amendment to the Shops and Offices Act passed last year. The power to grant exemption was vested with magistrates, and the ground for exemption was no longer restricted to undue hardship. Applications could be made on any grounds, and the only ground for refusal of the application was that its granting might substantially affect the business of some other shop or shops. The amendment provided, however, that public interest should receive due consideration. During the past month or so the Magistrate’s Court has been flooded with applications for exemption. Mr. A. H. Johnstone and Mr. S. W. Tong appeared for the applicants, and Mr. McVeagh for the objectors. SHOPS CLASSIFIED In his decision, Mr. Cutten made a classification of shops in order to guide future applicants. In districts remote from main shopping centres, where individual shops were some distance from each other, exemptions could be granted freely, for in such cases exemptions would be for the convenience of residents. In more closely settled suburban areas shops were closer to the main shopping centres, and exemption would affect other shops in the district. In addition, there was no serious public interest to consider. With small shops near the principal centres exemption would substantially affect other business, and again there was no public interest to take into account. In a fourth class came large shops which could not have exemption because assistants had to cease work at fixed hours. Mr. Cutten said that exemption should be granted sparingly in the se'cond class, and still more sparingly, if at all, to shops in the third class.