THE SHOP HOURS BILL.

Evening Star, Issue 7651, 29 June 1888, Page 2

THE SHOP HOURS BILL.

MR JOYCE AND THE OBJECTOR!}.

[From Oin Parliamentary Reporter.]

WELLINGTON, June 28

An interview between the members for Wellington and a number of local shopkeepers, as representing the business men who are opposed to the Shop Hours Bill, took place to-night. Mr Joyce, M.H.R., the author of the Bill, waß also present. Mr Duthie, who acted as spokesman, said that if the Bill were passed into law it would inflict great hardship on the small traders of the city, who largely depended on their evening trade, and they would be simply ruined if it were prohibited. He strongly deprecated interference with private rights in the way of legislation. Mr Joyce said that he had endeavored to meet some of the direct objections which had been raised against the Bill. He was prepared to amend it by preventing it from operating against the employment of members of the shop-owner's family who lived on the premises ; and, in order to guard the interests of employers of labor, he had drafted a clause enabling one person out of every five to remain in the shops up to the stated hours on certain days in the week. As there appeared to be a feeling that the Bill should not be brought into operation in Wellington, he would make it subject to local option there and in some of the other principal towns, and would also empower the borough councils to frame by-laws fixing half-holidays in case the burgesses asked for them. Another amendment provided that it should be the duty of the inspector of police to report to the Borough Council if, in his opinion, it was not necessary for the preservation of the employes' health that sitting accommodation should be provided for them. His object was that the Bill should only be made operative in Auckland and Dunedin, where the people were anxious that the principle of early closing should be affirmed, and had accepted the Bill in its original foim. Wellington had also been included in the schedules of the Bill, but if the representatives objected, they could have the word " Wellington " struck out. Christchurch had not signified any feeling one way or other, and would not be inserted unless its membeis desired it. The businesses excepted from the provisions of the Bill would be those of chemists, confectioners, fruit and vegetable vendors, newspaper offices, fish and oyster saloons, tobacconists, refreshment houses, and places for the sale of intoxicating liquors. The deputation here advised Mr Joyce to stick to his Bill as it was introduced if he wished to carry it. The amendments proposed did not meet their objections to the interference with people's rights. Mr Joyce assured those present that the demand for the Bill did not come particularly from the drapers' assistants, but rather from the storekeepers themselves, who wanted to have the evenings to themselves, but could not do so unless others were also compelled to close. The Hon. Mr Fisher generally opposed the Bill in its present form, and expressed th«Lopinion that to put on the Statute Book an optional measure would only be to render it entirely nugatory. Much as he sympathised with those who had to work long hours for small wages, he could not but think that such a Bill as was proposed would be an unjustifiable interference with trade. The very large number of excepr tions showed the difficulty in dealing with the question, and no one could limit the extent to which they might be carried. Mr Joyce said that the last speaker and others present would perhaps be surprised to know that there was an Imperial statute prohibiting assistants under the age of eighteen years remaining in shops. That went further than he proposed, inasmuch as his Bill left everything to local option. The more the desirableness of early closing was looked into the more it would be approved of, and he intended to persist in pushing his Bill as long as he held a seat in the House, and until he passed it. Later in the evening Mr Joyce favored me with a copy of the draft amendments which he intends proposing in the Bill as originally introduced, and the principal of which he sketched in the course of the interview reported above. These are : The Bill is not to apply to shops where the only persons employed are membors of the employer's family, and in every shop wherein the number of persons employed exceeds four one person out of every five may remain to the stated hours on certain days of the week. The Borough Council may, on receipt of a petition signed by a majority of the shopkeepers, declare a half-holiday for one afternoon in each week. The Inspector of Police is empowered to report if sitting accommodation is insufficient, or if any employe' is not afforded sufficient intervals of rest. For non-compliance with the Act a penalty of L 5 is provided. As the Bill at present stands, the schedule applies to the towns or borough councils of Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Nelson, _ Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, and Invercargill.