Charges for Hawking

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 159, 21 June 1935, Page 6

Charges for Hawking

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I see by the paper that the tradesmen of Hastings have got bad livers—the Council is not charging the hawkers enough. Now, I would warn the Hastings people not to be too greedy. I call to mind a case in Waipawa about five years ago. There was a hawker there and ho was a wise old bird. He would not pay the £lO per year the Waipawa County Council charged. The council sued him and got judgment. This wise old bird paid under protest, but sought a higher Court, and a Judge tried th case. It went against the council. The Judge told those men of Waipawa that hawk! ing was a legitimate occupation. There had been hawkers since Christ’s time, and they could not charge. Ho further told them that if they had not been too greedy and charged a moderate rate there would have been no trouble. As regards the Hastings tradesmen, they forget that a lot of them started ns pedlars; also, a number of the pedlars of to-day nre men who fought and bled to keep the old flag flying over the head of Mr Tradesman. Now, Sir, I would like some more able pen than mine to take up the cudgels for these men ami women who are trying to earn an honest crust without going on relief.—T am. etc.. EDWARD WILLIAMS. June 20/1935. [Our correspondent is evidently relerrmg to the discussion on itinerant traders at a recent meeting of the Hastings Chamber of Commerce. The Speakers were not referring to the general hawker but to the practice adopted bv firms from the cities of taking a shop or room in a provincial town for a brief period and selling goods, sometimes inferior, at cut prices in competition with the local tradespeople who pay wages, rents and rates and otherwise town.—Ed. H.B.T.]