SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 10 February 1915, Page 4

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY.

UNPOPULAR AMONG AUCKLAND SHOPKEEPERS. By Telegraph.—Per Press Association, Auckland, Last Night. Betwee n fifty and sixty shopkeepers attended'tl meeting to consider the possibility of having the Wednesday halfholiday restored. Mr Alfred Moore, who occupied the chair, said he was sure that a very great majority of shopkeepers were now in favor of restoring the Wednesday half-holiday. The matter was leally one of life and death for the small shopkeeper. In the larger shops the employees were being affected, in that when the pinch was felt it becamo 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 ill- ' leviatc the situation. | Mr II. Thompson said that they i had against them the employees who preferred Saturday, and who were numerically much stronger than the shopkeepers themselves. There wore people interested in sports who since the introduction of Saturday closing had reaped ai harvest, and there were people connected with ferries, picture shows, and mnay 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 a holiday if they were allowed to remain open on Saturday. He wished it to be understood this was merely an expression of feeling cf the meeting. When put the resolution was carried unanimously.