SHOP CLOSING HOURS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 974, 17 May 1930, Page 5

SHOP CLOSING HOURS

COMMITTEE HEARS EVIDENCE CHRISTCHURCH OPINIONS Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. When giving evidence before the committee which is inquiring- into the operation of the Shops and Offices Act, the Christchurch Hairdressers and Tobacconists’ Association asked that automatic vending machines be classed as shops and brought under the closing provisions. The association desired to retain the power of fixing closing hours by a requisition of the majority in any trade, and the right of each tobacconist to select his halfholiday himself. Where closing hours were fixed in any trade, the association considered that all shops selling goods in that trade should be closed at the prescribed hours. It asked that the purchaser as well as the seller should be liable to a. fine where a sale was made after the prescribed hours. The Master Bakers’ Union asked that uniform closing hours be fixed for pach trade and no alteration of these hours be allovred, either by requisition or by the Court of Arbitration. Opposition to exemption from uniform closing hours was expressed by the Seedsmen’s Association, which asked that its hours be the same as for other trades. There was no objection to fruiterers selling seeds and plants so long as they were not sold after seedsmen’s closing hours. The florists asked that trading hours be fixed by legislation and that fruiterers be not allowed to sell flowers after florists’ closing hours.