CLOSING OF SHOPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9582, 31 August 1909, Page 3

CLOSING OF SHOPS.

II An important decision has been recently givan by His Honor Mr Justice Cooper, affecting the rjglit of a majority ot" any particular trade or trades within a district by the procedure pointed out by The Shops and Offices Act, 1908, to compel the closing of their shops at particular hours in the evening during; the week. By that Statute on the requisition of a majority of the occupier.-* of all ! the shops wherein any particular j trade within the Uistrict is carried ■on may a requisition to the IMiniser of Labour desiring that all such shops shall be closed in the evening of every woiking day at an hour specified in the requisition, and the Minister shall by notice in the Gazette direct that all shops in the District carrying on the particular trade, the subject of the requisition j shall be closed in accordance with the requisition. j Jt appears that a majority of i the firms in Nelson carrying on prac- I tically exclusively the business oi i Ironmongery and Hardware oealers •in their respective shops, signed a j requisition to the Minister of Laj | bour to direc* the closing of nil I! shops carrying on the business of I { lronmongery and Hardware dealers j at a certain hour in the evening of i each working day. The requisition ! having been duly certified to by | the local authority as required by I the Act was given effect to by the ! Minister gazetting a notice directing I the closing of the shops carrying on j the particular trade in accordance , l with the requisition. j There were three firms carrying on the business of Ironmongery and I Hardware dealers in Nelson, and I two of whom practically made that * their exclusive business and they I alone signed the Requisition, but the defendant, although the main part of his business was Ironmongery and Hardware, sold some other classes of goods. He objected to con/orm to the direction of the Minister, and accordingly kept his shop open in defiance thereof. The Inspector of Factories thereupon laid an information against him for a breach of the Art in failing to close his shop at the hour directed by the Minister. The Magistrate dismissed ; the information on the ground that i the requisition was not signed by a 1 majority of all the shops carrying on the particular trade carried on by the defendant. It appeared that there was a number of other sbop- | keepers in the district carrying on ' general businesses of which the sale l of Ironmongery and Hardware for- ' med a substantial, but not the main i part, jf thier respective businesses, j The Magistrate held that these ehopi keepers were all ironmongers, and were carrying on the particular trade of ironmongers, and therefore, that as none of these had signed the requisition, the requisition was invalid as it had not been signed by a majority of the occupiers of all the shops carrying on lh* particular trade in the District The Inspector of Factories appealed from this decision to the Supreme Court and the question resolved itself into this: "Do these general shopkeepers carry on within the meaning of the. Act the businesses of Ironmongery and Hardware dealers?" The learned judge allowed the appeal on the ground that in- his opinion if the test to be ■ipplied was the one that the Magistrate had adopted the result would be both illogical and absurd. Ha goes on to say: "Many shopkeapers, especially in the smaller towns, and in the suburbs of the principal cities', carry on a general business. They sell groceries, fancygoods, ironmongery, boots and shoes, drapery, stationery, books, tobacco, etc., and all the many articles which are usually , included in the stock of a general storekeeper. In the same town or city, however, there are generally a certain number of tradesmen who specialise. Tbey r;iay be exclusively or mainly drapers or ironmongers, or boot and shoe dealers, or bo u tillers, or tobacconists. If these t. tu!i;rs who carry on spe:ia! business cannot regulate their hours of cljsiii; except by obtaining the consent of the majority of the general dealers who sell as port of their general business the special lines which are the exclusive or main business of the special class of tradesmen, the particular tradesmen are practically prevented from regulating the hours of their particular businesses, and thus the purpose of the Statute may be defeated." —Mercantile Gazette. ■