NEW CLOSING HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 53, 30 August 1940, Page 4

NEW CLOSING HOURS

REGULATIONS NECESSARY

"I am. satisfied on the evidence I received that 'Rafferty's rules' existed, and that employees in many cases worked all kinds of hours," declared the Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb), in the House of Representatives, in reply to Opposition criticism of the new hours observed by petrol resellers. Mr. Webb said that the question of hours was threshed out by the resellers for two years, and for twelve months he held up action. They wished to have extended to them the same privileges that existed in regard to the closing of shops. Before anything was done, each district had to take a ballot of members and they had to get an overwhelming majority. In Palmerston North, for instance, every reseller except one was keen to have regular hours of closing.

"Before the regulations came into operation," said the Minister, "resellers had to make satisfactory arrangements to meet the needs of the public. Among themselves they agreed that certain places should be open all night in order that the travelling public might be supplied. Evidence has been submitted to me that in many cases men had to be kept on duty to supply occasional cars that could have been supplied earlier and more conveniently."

The Minister added that the regulations were necessary to the trade, and any injustices that might be felt would be removed.