HINDUS TAKING SHOPS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 230, 24 June 1932, Page 10

HINDUS TAKING SHOPS

Retail Fruit Business z LATEST DEVELOPMENT Another change is coming over the retail fruit business in 'Wellington, Hitherto the shop business has been confined to the Chinese and a few whites scattered here and there, the Orientals being very largely in the majority. At one time the street barrows were for the most part in the hands of white men, while the Chinese who did not run shops ekod out a living by hawking fruit and vegetables from door to door, either with the aid of a horse and cart or- shouldered baskets suspended on a bamboo pole. During the last seven or eight years the Hindu, either direct from Bombay or via Fiji, has invaded Wellington and other parts of New Zealand. In this city the newcomer has •made the stationary licensed fruit barrow business pretty well his own, but several of the Hindus, tempted by, the low rents, are now taking shops in different parts of the city. It is said that in some instances they are paying less money for shops than their fellow countrymen are paying for street stands. The effect of the new development may become apparent at the next sale of fruit barrow street stands by the City Corporation, a few days hence. The local authority has decided on further restrictions on the barrow men just at a time when shop rents are particularly low—circumstances which may result in a fall in prices. According to the new regulations, the present methods of exhibiting fruit on boxes and baskets all round the barrow is to stop. The goods must be confined to the area of the barrow, which is to be not longer than 7 feet, nor higher than 5 feet! All barrows are to be enclosed in glass on all four sides.

These regulations are to some extent the result of the protest of white fruit shop proprietors in the city, but when it is'realised that the Hindu is being driven into taking shops in preference to barrows the story may be a different one.