CLOSING OF FRUIT SHOPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18895, 18 December 1924, Page 9

CLOSING OF FRUIT SHOPS.

Sir. —I would like to reply to some of the statements in an article re early closing of fruit shops, 'Iho closing time 3 for the first four days of the week are nine o'clock each evening, in summer, and seven o'clock in winter, Friday and Saturday being optional. The hours worked by the average white fruiterer aro 14 to 16 daily, and the new regulations only curtail these excessive hours by IJ, daily for the first four days, or six hours weekly, out of a total of 87 hours worked. If this miserably-small relief is going to pull down prices, and ruin the growers, then prices must ho hanging by a very fine thread. The statement that the suburban shopkeepers outvoted the rity men is altogether wrong. Each district has to have a clear majority separately. Our canvassers went over the city area' first, and. having got a clear majority in favour of early closing, they proceeded to do the outer districts. It is simply nonsense to say the suburban vote swamped the city vote. Almost wholly the opposition has come from the bigger Chinese at the bottom of Queen Street. W. Bridge, Dominion Road.