The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1894.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 226, 21 September 1894, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1894.

For tlie eaii«B that laekl asiistanM, For tlie yneng that needs r»Utaii6i, For thß tatoxi in ths distance, And tho good tliat ire can d».

j TtfE Legislative Council yesterday destroyed the Shop Hours Bill by exempting from its operation all shops where assistants are not employed. The reason given for this proceeding by the mover of the amendment, Mr Reynolds, is a very extraordinary one* He declared that the people did not desire the Bill. The cool assumption of this assertion is positively delightful. Here We have the | members of a nominee chamber* who* by a life tenure, have got completely out of touch with public opinion, rejecting a measure on the ground that they and not the members fresh from the constituencies are the true fepresehtativ«i of the people. So far as the Shop Hours Bill is concerns3j there should have been ho dbubt in the minds; of Councillors about the feeling that prevails among the class #hich wciuld be especially affected, by it. A petition from Auckland in favour of the Bill, showing an amount of unanimityi such as is rarely attained where trading interests are concerned, lies on the table of Parliament. By an amendment which the Council made two years ago in the original draft of the law now in force, shopkeepers have been put to the greatest possible inconvenience and loss; They are kept perpetually short - handed, and we helievethat if Auckland were polled to-morrow, there would not be found a dozen shopkeepers whb would endorse the action of the Council in compelling them to grant a weekly half-holiday to assistants at irregular periods. Yet the Council^ forsooth, assumes to speak as the special exponent of the Views of the sbop-kefepitig; class and their cus-| tomer*^ '

Eveti ttbre ridiculous in'd triiftipefy is the excuse f>Ut forward last night that poor shopkeepers would be damaged by the Bill. The dass for whom trig amendment secures exemption would suffer, least of all from the compulsory dbserVailce of a weekly halfholiday. It may be a serious thing for a man who has a large amount of capital sunk in stock and an expensivfi staff df assistants, to forego half a day's trading every week, but a small shopkeeper, who suspends business for a few hours while all other tradesmen in the same line are doing the same thing, can lose very little.' No doubt the Government will refuse t6 accept the amendment, and U" the Council insists upon it, shopkeepers and shop assistants will have to endure the present stupid makeshift law until the Upper Chamber can be brought in line With public opinion.