SHOP HOURS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1928, Page 19

SHOP HOURS.

QUESTION OF EXEMPTIONS. AMENDED PROVISIONS. _____ Sections 19 and 20 of the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1927, which came into force on Wednesday, set out an amended procedure in regard to the granting of exemptions (1) from the various provisions fixing the closing hours of shops (except from the observance of the statutory half-holiday, whether such hours are fixed by awards of the Court of Arbitration, by Section 31 of the Shops and Offices Act", 1921-22, or by the local shopkeepers' requisitions fixing closing hours), and also (2) from any prohibition (under Section 33 of the Shops and Offices Act, 1921-22) of the' sale of goods after such hours. All applications for exemptions are now to be dealt with by magistrates. The matters to be taken into consider* ation by the magistrates in dealing with applications for exemptions and the powers of the magistrates to cancel or vary any exemptions granted are contained in Section 19 of the Amendment Act, the relevant provisions of which are as follow:— "If the magistrate is of opinion that the exemption applied for will not substantially affect the business of any other shop he shall by order grant such exemption. "If the magistrate is satisfied in the case of an application by the occupier of a shop for exemption from any closing hours fixed by an award that all the provisions of such award are not binding on the employers of a majority of the shop assistants employed in any particular trade within the industry or industries to which the award relates in the separate district or combined district, as the case mav be, in which such shop is. situated, he shall by order exempt the occupiers of all shops in such trade in such district from the closing hours so fixed. "Notwithstanding anything contained m the two last preceding sub-sections, if the magistrate is satisfied in any other " desirable in the public interest that any application for exemption as aforesaid should be granted either wholly or partially, he may by order grant such exemption accordingly, subject to such terms and conditions as he may think fit, having regard to the interests of the occupier of any other shop that may be affected by such exemption. "Any such order may at any time be cancelled or varied by the same or any other magistrate on the application of any occupier affected by such order, and aH the provisions of this section iSi" 18 -*v a xv a PP Iic *tion for exemption r he ? eces sary modifications, ap Py an application under this sub-