WHICH DAY?

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 89, 17 April 1911, Page 8

WHICH DAY?

ZO THE EDITOB. I Sir, — Mr. Seaton's contention that every second shop in the Metropolitan area of Melbourne is exempted is not borne out by facts. Further, he 6tates that there are seventeen exemptions under the Melbourne Saturday half-holiday Act. The exemptions in reality amount to fifteen, but when you come to analyse some there is practically little difference from our New Zealand .Shops and Oflices Act. They are specified under two schedules, and are as follows :—: — Chemists, coffee houses, confectioners, I eating houses, fish and oyters, fruit and vegetables, restaurants, tobacconists, booksellers aaid newsagents, florists, bicycles, hairdressers, bakers, bird and dog dealers. The New Zealand shop exemptions are : — Fishmongers, fruiterers, confectioners, florists, refreshmentroom keepers, bakers, butchers, book-stall-keepers on railway station or •wharf, hairdressers, tobacconists, photo-graphei-s, chemists. Let any intelligent person carefully examine the preceding exemptions of both places, and they must come to the conclusion that Mr. Seaton's statements are groundless and unwarranted. In Mr. Seaton's opinion, the shopkeepers of Melbourne are continually whining against the operation of tho Saturday half -holiday. Time and again he postulates as the friend ( ?) of the small shopkeeper. Why, the shopkeepers, especially the small men, of Melbourne could terminate the Saturday half-holiday in a very short time if it had a detrimental effect on their business, as they have power to do ro, ac the subsequent extract from their Act will prove :— "lf, after the expiration of one year from the commencement of this Act, a majority consisting of at least fifty more than one half the number of all the shopkeepers in tile metropolitan district (other than shopkeeperr ex> empted) sign petitions .... and forward to the Minister of Labour praying that 'the Saturday half-holiday 1 cease to have any force or effect, the ' Governor-in-Council may by order, published in the Government Gazette, suspend the operation of the Saturday half-holiday for such a period as he may see fit, being not less than six months nor more than two years." For two years Melbourne- has enjoyed the Saturday half-holiday, and to date no such petition has been lodged. That is surely conclusive proof that the day is both popular and successful. — I am, etc., PETER L. MUIR. Wellington, 12th April, 1911. TO THE EDITOE. .Sir, — Seeing that the above question, viz., the attempt to change the halfholiday from Wednesday to Saturday, is to be decided at the polls in the course of a week or so, it may not be amiss, with your kind permission, to enter a few words of protest as regard the proposed change. As a worker myself 1 am always in sympathy with the -workers — whether they be shop assistants or workers in any ' other line — whenever there is a hardship imposed by employers or a. wrong to be righted ; but I am strongly of opinion that the shop assistants and others who are strenuously backing them up for the Saturday haltholiday are far from consulting the convenience of ths majority of the purchasing public. It matters very little to the wealthy and well-to-do classes on what day of the week tho half-holi-day is kept, but there ie no day in the week that tho working man's wife and family are as free to make their little purchases, and at the same time have a little relaxation and stroll through tho city at. on Saturday. II is equally as ■evident that even making Friday the | late night for shops would not work out at all as convenient for the poorer claseea as Saturday. On Friday the working man comes home, very often tired, and. has his dinner or tea; then the wife lias to rush to &et ready to go out. and do her shopping before 9 p.m., while her husband, aG 1 have said, would probably be too tired to change his clothes to go out with her. On Saturday h.3 would reach liome about 1 o'clock, the wife would have her cleaning dune, and the week's domestic drud gery over, and so herself and husband would be free to have- two cr three hours' utroll through, the town in the way of relaxation, and at the sa-me time- make their little purchases. But the shopaewstants do not want to ha\c tilings that way ; they want the '-week-end" ior the ; r own relaxation, "barrackir^" perhaps, at a iootball match or some other iunu&ement. Another feature in tho J piopo&2cl change would be this — that the smaller shopkeepers would materially sillier, while the big shops would benefit i —Mid they know it tor,. The email i ohopa depend largely on llie Saturday takings, while the bfg shops command a big all-round trade throughout the ween ; especially is this iho caee in tho grocery trade. 1 am afraid that the Labour candidate*), who certainly have backed up this movement, will find on next polling day that their efforts on behalf of the shop-assistants is not appreciated by a large proportion of tho working people themselves. — I am, etc.. R.M.T. , Weiungtoii, 15bh April, 1911.