SUNDAY CLOSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1928, Page 21

SUNDAY CLOSING.

DECISION OF CITY CHEMISTS,

MEETING OF ASSOCIATION.

Auckland chemists at a meeting of the Pharmacists' Association last evening favoured the closing of their shops on Sunday, although there is some divergence of opinion over the matter. Already about 80 out of the 80 chemists in the city have signed a requisition agreeing to close their shops from 9 p.m. on Saturday till the usual hour on Monday. ~=f-.

Mr. L. S. Rickerby presided at the meeting, and outlined the case in favour of Sunday closing. He said that if the experiment did not prove successful another requisition could be presented after six months to hare the old order established again. ;

Claiming that the medical profession and the public would be handicapped by the closing on Sunday, Mr. R. Ootterall opposed the proposed new measure.

Only eleven members voted for an amendment suggesting that the shops should remain open for two hours on Sunday evening, and this was accepted; considering the matter had been well threshed out, as an expression that members were willing to give the new system a trial.

The position now is that the signed requisition has been approved by the Auckland branch of the Labour Department and forwarded to Wellington. When notification has been received that the requisition has been gazetted, no medicine can be bought and no ordinary prescription dispensed on Sunday except at the All-night Pharmacy in Newton Road. Crgent prescriptions will, of course, receive the attention of chemists living on their own premises.