CORRESPONDENCE CONDENSED.

Evening Star, Issue 8968, 29 October 1892, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE CONDENSED.

"Indignant Mother" hopes that the women of Dunedin wbe have the municipal franohise will remember the scandalous manner In which Mr Flah attacked womanhood in general during last session of Parliament. For the love of home and in defence of every attribute that a virtuous woman holds dear the women voters ought to do their duty on this occasion, and pay off the gratuitous insult that was offered them.

"Mr J. Braithwaite " asks when there is a general agreement about the wisdom of having a oompulsory half-holiday why should they grasp the shadow and lose the substance? While not ceasing to agitate tor Saturday their duty Is to make the most of the Shop Hours Bill as they find it Local option must prevail in this as in other matters, and a majority of the shopkeepers in each borough should be sufficient to close the shops of the rest. As Mr Emery favors Saturday, why does he not fall in with the Saturday half-holiday movement, then the other agitation would collapse ? And that would be the best way to agitate in favor of the Saturday half-holiday. As to suburban shopkeepers remaining open, Mr Braithwaite thinks the publio will go where the largest stocks are kept and the best values given. With a late Friday night there should be no difficulty in diverting Saturday night's trade to Friday night and Saturday morning. If. the working men determine that their families shall not purchase after 1 p.m. on Saturdays, all oiasses in the community will soon have the eDJoyment of the Saturday half-holiday. " Shopkskfkb " supplies reasons why the retail traders are not ripe for falling into line tor the Saturday half-holiday. First, many shopkeepers would be serioußly embarrassed through their businesses being disorganised and their trade diverted by at once closing on Saturdays. Second, the law as at present framed only reaches the larger shops in the City employing assistants, and leaves all other shopc in town and suburbs entirely free to remain open on everyday and till any hour in the evening, thus causing a very wide ohannelopen for reoelving the diverted Saturday's trade. This simply means bringing ruin on some shopkeepers in order that others may be the better off. It is true that some shopkeepers (thoße who do no Saturday's trade to speak of) would losing, nothing by closing, but the contrary would be the case with many others. As a war out of the present difficulty he suggests that the Wednesday and Saturday Committees, together with a neutral ohairman, should discuss the whole matter, and resolve on some united course of action in the direction of getting the Act altered in favor of compulsory dosing. "Working Man" thinks that the observance of a late night on Fridays will overcome all practical difficulties in the way of the Saturday half-holiday; and that if all his fellow operatives follow his plan of dealing only with those who olose on Saturday afternoon, the holiday on that day will soon become an accomplished fact. ''Cabman" thinks the working classes have the half-holiday matter entirely in their own hands. If they insist on their families patronising only those establishments which observe the Saturday halfholiday the question will soon settle itself. "Workman" thinks that the pivio authorities might shown their respect tor Labor Day by flying " the flag " from the Town Hail yesterday. " Sport " will find the occurrences commented on in our sporting intelligence. The offioial of the club acted on the instructions of his Executive, but there Is, wo have reason for saying, considerable doubt whether the fatter had any legal power to ejeot ''walking totalizators" from the course. Judge Williams's deoisiou is law qntil the Court of Appeal reverses it, and racing officials must be prepared to accept the responsi bility ef their acts if they sanotlon measures which set that decision on one side. As to the " protests," they are becoming unpleasantly numerous, and the investing publio, who after all are the best patrons of racing and trotting clubs, have a right to expect some measure of protection against designing persons Interested in horses, and who appear to have the rules of racing at their fingers' ends. A recent case at Forbury and yesterday's fiasco at Tahuna Park do not favor the idea that the stewards themselves fully understand the scope of the rules they are called on to administer. When protests are under consideration the Press representatives should be in attendance, so that (if necessary) the investing publio may know the nature of the evidence on whlob the stewards based their conclusions. Rumor has been too busy of late with the names of interested judges; and these reports, unless silenced in a way that the public can credit, ate not calculated to inspire general confidence in the bona fides of the so-called tribunal.