CLOSING HOUR OF SHOPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 6

CLOSING HOUR OF SHOPS.

WELLINGTON CONVICTION UPSET.

[by telegraph.— association.]

WELLINGTON, Friday. Judgment was given by the Chief Justice to-day in the.case of Holdsworth, tobacconist, v. Lightfoot, Labour Department, concerning the hours during whMi tobac-

conists' shops may keep open. This v/as an appeal on a. point of law from tVis decision of a Wellington magistrate. His Honor first held, as to a requisition fixing the hours, that the Minister had declared that a majority of the shopkeepers concerned had signed a requisition, which had been affirmed by the Wellington City Council, and that, in His Honor's opinion, concluded the matter of the hour of closing. The second point was as to what was the meaning of the word " evening." No aid could be obtained from the statute, in which five o'clock was called afternoon and also evening. His Honor said he was of opinion that he must accept the strict meaning of the word, and, therefore, there was no power to fix five o'clock as the closing hour of the place of business I mentioned, at all events in those months of the year when the sun had not set at five o'clock. The notice of the Minister fixing the time of closing, so far as Wednesday was concerned, was not valid, and the conviction must be set aside.