EXEMPTION GRANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1928, Page 8

EXEMPTION GRANTED.

RESTAURANFS CLOSING HOUR

TOBACCO SOLD, TOO.

COMMENT BY MAGISTRATE,

(By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. As the law stands, a restaurant proprietor who sells tobacco as a sideline is required to close his premises at 8 p.m. This position was declared anomalous by Mr. H. J. McMullin, when supporting the application of Frederick George Sanders, restaurant-keeper, of Hamilton, for exemption from the closing requirements of the Act. The application was opposed by the Tobacconists' Association. The applicant said that besides his restaurant he conducted a booking agency for several car services. Between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. ten service cars stopped at his door, and his busiest time was from 6 p.m. till 10 p.m. He admitted he had been convicted twice "in four years for trading after hours.

Mr. D. Seymour, for the opposition, said there was another course open to applicants in these cases—to give up the sale of tobacco—but they would not take it. The tobacconists were finding that all the '"bread and butter" lines were being "pirated," and the hairdressers' business was in an invidious position.

Mr. Platts, S.M., said no conclusive evidence had been given that the exemption, if granted in this case, would seriously affect the business of any other shop. He considered it important that Sanders should be allowed to keep 6pen for the convenience of the travelling public. He did not see why the applicant should be penalised to the extent of cutting out his tobacco business altogether.

The application was granted. The applicant gave a personal undertaking on his honour that there would be no infringement of the law.