ITINERANT HAWKERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 March 1934, Page 5

ITINERANT HAWKERS

LICENSE FEE PROBLEM. A remit, stating that legislation should be amended to allow boroughs freedom in fixing the scale of hawkers’ license fees was the cause of consider abe discussion on hawkers’ activities generally by delegates at the annual conference in Wellington of the Municipal Association of New Zealand. The remit was eventually referred back to the executive for further consideration.

“Some places, especially country towns and districts, are flooded out by hawkers,” said the Kaiapoi delegate, who moved the remit. “In our village a whole bus-load- —twenty-two of them —came in on one day. To make matters worse, it was a Sunday. After a time we got them all rounded up and sent them away. They had been wandering about backyards while the people in the houses were away at church, and they were making a thorough nuisance of themselves.” He said he was willing to include in the remit provision for a maximum charge of £5 being made if that was required by the other delegates. The Mayor of Wellington, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, who was in the chair, said that unless some limit in the fee was mentioned it had no chance of legislation.

Another delegate said that some of the hawkers had no other means of making a living. While some of them might be regarded as nuisances there was an element of human sympathy that ought to be taken into consideration before any borough were allowed to take whatever drastic steps it wished.

An Auckland delegate: “I should like to see all hawkers issued with a badge or a number whereby they could be reported to the authorities if they became objectionable. Also there should be a limit to the number of licenses issued.”

Describing itinerant country hawkers as “pirates,” a delegate said that at the present time from Otahuhu to Te Kuiti they were making it difficult for legitimate trading by local shops.

It was decided to ask the executive committee to reconsider the question before anything was attempted to be done about it.

A Timaru remit, “That the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933, be amended so as to define itinerant traders and to make it clear that the fee charged is an annual fee. It is considered that a higher fee than at. present should bo fixed, and that it should be not less than £25 per annum,” was passed.