BUSINESS HOURS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 9 October 1913, Page 8

BUSINESS HOURS.

DEPUTATION OF SHOP-KEEPERS

BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. I WELLINGTON, Oct. 8. A deputation of small Wellington shop-keepers waited upon the Prime Minister this evening with reference to the hours of closing proposed under the Shops and Offices Bill now before the Labor Bills Committee. The deputation said that ,the new Bill contained a compulsory six o'clock closing clause which would have general application over the combined district of Wellington. They wanted this clause and the requisition clause which was always a danger, modified. The larger shop-keepers could by requisition close the small shops up at any hour for the larger men were now more numerous. The men in the suburbs did their best business after 5 o'clock. ;The Prime Minister, in reply, said that he did not propose to be a party to inflicting hardships upon any section of the community: The opinions they had expressed would be useful to him when the Bill was before the House, but he could assure them that while he remained in his present position nothing would be done to injure the interests of small tradesmen.