GROCERS’ PROTEST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22617, 21 April 1948, Page 3

GROCERS’ PROTEST

HOLIDAY ON MONDAY ANZAC DAY OBSERVANCE (P.A.) _ WELLINGTON, April 21. The Wellington master grocers had no option but to close their shops next Monday, said the secretary of the Wellington Master Grocers’ Association, Mr. J. A. Kellow, yesterday. He was stating the association’s attitude on the observance of a holiday on Monday when Anzac Day fell o n Sunday. Mr. Kellow said he had been in communication with the president of the Federation of Labour, Mr. A. W. Croskery, who is also secretary of the Wellington Shop Assistants’ Industrial Union of Workers, in order to come to some compromise on the closing of shops on Monday in the observance of Anzac Day, but Mr. Croskery had been insistent that when Anzac Day fell on a Sunday the shops must be closed, either on the following day or on some other day in lieu thereof. Members of the association are definitely opposed to Anzac Day being Mondayised," said Mr. Kellow. “They had done everything possible to arrange tor next Monday to be observed as an ordinary business day. However, on referring the matter to the Labour Department, they had been advised that grocers were bound to observe the terms of the award and that any grocer who opened On Monday would render himself liable to prosecution.” The association looked upon Anzac Day as a day of remembrance of those who gave their lives in the cause of freedom as a holy day and not as a holiday in the generally accepted sense, said Mr. Kellow. Unfortunately this view was apparently not shared by the employees’ union.