SUNDAY TRADING.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 223, 20 September 1929, Page 10

SUNDAY TRADING.

SHOPKEEPERS CAUGHT.

LARGE NUMBER FINED

"ARE YOU A POLICEMAN?"

During tho last two or three Sunday mornings two constables have been disjiatched from Central Station with several shillings' worth of small change in their pockets, plus certain instructions. These were to catch shopkeepers who break the law by selling such things as sweets, fruit and cigarettes oil Sundays. Judging by the large crop of shopkeepers before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at tho Police Court this morning the two constables were successful.

The following were each fined £1 and costs for selling on Sunday: Ethel Armstrong, P. Cunningham, J. Cox, W. A. Cadwallader, G. Davis, M. Daly, Katie M. Keith, Lysa Kirk, Ada Lockhard, Catherine Lyons, P. Morrison, Nellie Harris, C. H. Merila, L. Vining, Celia A. Ward and A. Wilson. "'These fines will be increased after this," announced the magistrate, after he had dealt with the above cases. - A Charge Dismissed. When Florence Griffiths, a young lady, was charged, she explained that she was merely tho assistant employed in the shop. "My employer instructed me to ask every man who came in, 'Are you a constable' and if they said 'No' I was to serve them." (Laughter.) Sub-Inspector McCarthy (smiling): So that's the way it is done. The young lady added that she was dismissed the day the constable caught her selling, but was taken back to the shop on the Tuesday. "Then when I received the summons I was dismissed again, and I am no longer at the shop." Mr. Hunt: Oh, well, if that' 6 the case, I will dismiss the charge against you. We had better get the proprietor of the business here. Sub-Inspector McCarthy: That will be done. Ordered on Saturday. C. H. Merila pleaded not. guilty to a charge of selling on Sunday, but his explanation, quite a novel one, was disbelieved by Mr. Hunt. Merila stated that a man ordered his goods on the Saturday and called for them on the Sunday. "What were they?" asked the magistrate. "Two packcts of chewing gum," replied tho shopkeeper. "He came in on the Saturday and did not have the money, so they were kept until the Sunday."' "Oh, tommy rot!" said Mr. Hunt.