The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 871, 16 September 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FR IDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 1881.

e Our attention has been again called to the late hours to which some business establishments in Masterton are kept open. There is a keen trade competition in this town, and long hours are the natural result of it. Of course an undue extension of the time in which shops are kept open to the public is beneficial neither to the proprietors of them nor to the public. Customers will no doubt spread their purchases over 14 hours of the day if shops be kept open for such a time. If, on the other hand, the hours of business wore reduced to eight or ten they would make their arrangements accordingly, and get all they requite within those limits. It is not directly the duty of customers to regulate their purchases in such a way as to conduce to the comfort and convenience of the proprietors of shops and their employees, and it must not be expected that they will bring any pressure to boar to remedy the evil complained of. Still, the question of early closing is a public one, and a certain amount of public opinion should be brought to bear upon it by all who desire to see the community in which we live a prosperous one. It is a legitimate thing to point out to the business residents of the town that they are not justified either in sacrificing their own health or that ol their employees by absorbing in business pursuits all the time that is available between getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. Experience has shown that the laboring man does as much in eight hours in New Zealand as he has been wont to do in twelve in the old country, and a positive gain both to the master and servant has been secured by a reduction in the hours of labour, We believe that the same experiment, if tried with lighter occupations, such as shop-beeping, would hold good. We should ourselves be glad to see shops in this town which are wont to be open 14 hours a day reduced to 10 hours. It is obvious that if one and all agreed to such a reduction there would on the one hand be no loss of trade, and on the other an absolute gain of some 20 or 24 hours a week for recreation. Our Football and Cricket Clubs, our Volunteer corps, would be much better manned if the young people employed in stores had sufficient liberty to take part in them, We quite recognise that any change for the better must come from the proprietors of shops themselves. They have a perfect right to open and close their establishments when they think proper. All that the public are, justified in doing is to endeavor to show them that they are working against their own interests and sacrificing their own health and that of their assistants by keeping late hours without obtaining not only any corresponding advantage, but, as far as we can see, any benefit whatever,