SATURDAY HOLIDAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15500, 6 January 1914, Page 8

SATURDAY HOLIDAY.

EDEN TERRACE INCLUDED.

CHANGE TAKES PLACE THIS

WEEK.

EFFECT OF AMENDING ACT.

A change from Wednesday to Saturday as the day for the weekly half-holday will be made in the Eden Terrace Road District this week. By a clause in the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, which is now in operation, this district has been included in the Auckland combined district for the purposes of that portion of the principal Act which regulates the selection of the statutory half-holiday, and shopkeepers in Eden Terrace will be required to comply with the law regarding the | compulsory observance of a half-holiday on Saturday.

Eden Terrace is the first road district brought into a combination of municipalities for the purposes of the Shops and Offices Act. Electors within it will have votes at future polls upon the holiday question, and special provision has been made to give to it the sams franchise as that held by the main portion of the combined district. At local elections in road distriots, only ratepayers are qualified voters, but for the purposes of the holiday question only, Eden Terrace will be deemed a town district, and will therefore have the municipal franchise. Its electors will not have an opportunity to vote on the question until next year, and onlv then, if a poll is demanded by requisition, according to the provisions of the Act.

Notice has been given by the inspector of factories to all shopkeepers in Eden Terrace, drawing attention to the requirements of the amending legislation. In compliance with this direction, shops in the area concerned will remain open on Wednesday and close on Saturday afternoon and evening. Numerous provisions aw comprised in the principal Act regarding the weekly holiday in districts in which , Saturday is appointed. One of them permits a shop, in which is carried on the business of a butcher, a hairdresser, a tobacconist, or a photographer, to be closed during the afternoon of soma other working day than Saturday. This privilege is freely exercised, and one amendment which has now been mads is designed as a prevention against abuse of it. It Las been found that advantage has been taken by some tradesmen, in this category to deal in goods which belong to ether businesses when the latter are closed. The new Act restricts the privilege to those tradesmen who deal exclusively in the goods of their particular business. Any butcher, hairdresser, tobacconisj. or photographer, who does not comply with the condition, must close his shop on Saturday. Certain classes of shops are permitted to remain open throughout the week, provided that the assistants are each given a half-holiday during the week. In ordw to facilitate the keeping of a record of the holidays, any shop assistant who neglects to sign the holiday-book, where one is kept, is now made liable to a fine of £1. Another clause in the Act reduces the maximum number of hours for female employees in hotels from 58 to 56 per week. The Act also contains the provision by which it is placed within the "discretion of the Arbitration Court, in framing new awards, to fix a six days' week for hotel employees.