ITINERANT TRADERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 538, 15 December 1928, Page 6

ITINERANT TRADERS

MAGISTRATE CRITICISES BY-LAW CASUAL AUCTIONEER FINED (From Our Own CorrespondentJ MORRINSVILLE. To-day. A case taken by the Morrinsville Borough Council against Robert Salon, a travelling auctioneer, led Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., to remark on the subject of itinerant traders, at the Morrinsville Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Salon was charged with selling goods in the borough without possessing a licence from the municipal authority. The magistrate, after perusing a copy of the by-laws, said that according to them any shopkeeper carrying on under a weekly or monthly tenancy would be an itinerant trader. The Town Clerk: The by-law is intended to protect the local shopkeepers. The Magistrate: Is that good for the town? If competition is kept out the town becomes a close corporation and prices are likely to be higher than they otherwise would be. It did not follow, he said, that all traders sold articles of rubbishy quality. The town clerk pointed out that the shopkeepers had to pay rates throughout the whole year. Mr. Wilson: “By engaging a shop or hall an itinerant trader paid rates indirectly, probably more in proportion than if he paid monthly or yearly." In conclusion, he said he could see no reason for the by-law; but it was there. Defendant had not paid the licence fee in the ordinary way, so he would pay it in another—a fine of £5.