Hawkers

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 14

Hawkers

Sir,—Within the last few weeks we in Fendalton have been pestered almost daily by hawkers of books, window mops, vacuum cleaners, brushes, photography, toiletries, cardigans, make-up, and religion, plus the house-to-house collectors and makers of “surveys.” One pair sought an evening appointment to discuss books and a house was burgled on the night the family said it would not be home. Will the Wairaairi County Council and the police state what hawkers’ licences have been granted and on what grounds and (if none) what redress or protection residents and regular shop-owners have? Men can make these intruders bolt for the gate: unfair advantage is taken of women, particularly those alone in the house.—Yours, CLAMP DOWN. October 21, 1965. [The officer in charge of the Christchurch Police District (Chief Superintendent G. W. Alty) said: “Hawkers’ licences are issued by local authorities and not by the police, who have no record of the number of such licences. j. [The chairman of the Waimalri County Council (Mr O. C. Mitchell) replied: “A local authority can only administer the law as delegated to it by Government. In the main, local authorities are authorised to regulate hawkers but not prohibit. Therefore the council has only very limited powers in this matter. A resident should, when in any doubt, ask the hawker to produce his licence.”]