BREACH OF SHOPS ACT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19461, 7 November 1928, Page 7

BREACH OF SHOPS ACT.

AUTOMATIC CIGARETTE VENDOR

(PBESS 18SOCUTZOV TXLEOSAV.) WELLINGTON, November 8. By keeping open an automatic cigarette maehine outside their doors on a statutory half-holiday, Armits, Ltd., have been held hy Mr E. Page, S.M., to have failed to close their shop at 1 p.m. r

The charge was laid under the Shops and Offices Act, which Mr Page in a reserved judgment to-day said seemed wider than the English Act. Defining a shop as being any building or place in which goods are kept exposed or offered for sale, or in which any part of the business of a shop is conducted, he thought that the place where the machine was in this case came within the definition of and formed part of the shop. He did not think that defendants' position would be improved even if the machine were placed in the street or other public place; The definition of "shop" seemed wide enough to cover it.

Mr Page also remarked that the Act limited not only the hours in which assistants might be employed, but also the hours in which trading might be carried on.

The question of penalty was deferred for a week to allow the decision to be considered with a view to an appeal.