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[As REPORTED FROM THE LABOUR BILLS COMMITTEE.] Bth August, 1905. Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon. SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT AMENDMENT.

• ANALYSIS. Title. 3b. Definition of " fishmonger " amended. 1. Short Title. 4. Section 21 of principal Act amended. 2. Repeal. . 4a. Excepted offices. 3. Closing-hours for assistants. 4b. Overtime in excepted offices. 3a. Closing-hours for shops. Schedules.

A BILL INTITULED An Act to amend " The Shops and Offices Act, 1904." BE IT ENACTED by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by thp authority of the same, as follows:— 1. The Short Title of this Act is " The Shops and Offices Act Amendment Act, 1905 "; and it shall form part of and be read together with " The Shops and Offices Act, 1904 " (hereinafter referred to as " the principal Act "). 2. Section three of the principal Act is hereby repealed. Struck out. 3. (1.) Subject to the provisions of the principal Act and to any award of the Arbitration Court, a shop-assistant shall not be employed in or about the shop or its business more than fifty-two hours in one week or at any time after one o'clock in the afternoon on the statutory closing-day, or after nine o'clock in the evening on Saturdays in districts where Saturday is not the closing-day, or after six o'clock in the evening on any other working-day. (2.) If any shop-assistant is employed at any work in connection with the business of any shop later than half an hour after the time prescribed by this section, the employer commits an offence in respect of each shop-assistant so employed. New clauses. 3a. (1.) A shop-assistant shall not be employed— (a.) In a shop required under section twenty-one of the principal Act to close at a specified hour, after the hour so specified ; nor (b.) In any other shop— (i.) If any of the trades mentioned in the First Schedule hereto is carried on therein, after eleven o'clock in the evening on one working-day in each week or eight o'clock in the evening on other working-days; nor I—l. 9.

Title.

Short Title.

Repeal.

Closing-hours for assistants.

Closing-hours for shops.