THE SHOP HOURS BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9013, 19 October 1892, Page 3

THE SHOP HOURS BILL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, With your kind permission I would like to make a few remarks on the above Bill. In ths first place, who are the parties so anxious for this Bill to become law ? Is it not the shop assistants ? Suppose I look at it from an employer's standpoint, and see how the two harmonise. A party goes into a shop and buys, say, a dress, the party buying expects to get full value for the money ; invested, and the shopkeeper expects to get the full amount in payment for the article I sold. Suppose I put the employer and the i employee on the same terms. The employer pays his assistant so much per week services rendered, and as the law now stands .he has I in addition to give him a half-holiday weekly, which means paying for value not received. Now, if an assistant would like to do to others as he would be done by, how could he consistently take payment without an equiva- ! lent in return. As a remedy, I think the fairest way wonld be for labour to be paid according to services rendered, say by the hour or week as the case may be. That ought to be j as much as either party could expect from one another. Compare a mechanic with a shopman and see how much better the latter is off than the former. The one has to buy tools before he can take work in hand, the other does not require to expend a penny. In one case one has to lose all time not actual working, the other gets paid all holidays and sometimes in sickness. I leave your readers to judge who is the best off, and yet another half-holiday has to be conceded. I ask how can employers make their business remunerative unless they make the public pay by putting more on the prices already charged. I think if employers will pay for labour given and that only, that is all the employed can expact. —I am, etc., Fair Play.