SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5600, 29 May 1905, Page 7

SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

rrs NON-ENFOKCEM ENT DENOUNCED. A public meeting was held in Mercer street on Saturday night to protest against Hits non-oruoiccmcnt of' 5 the Chops ami Offices Act of last session. There wero about two hundred people present. Prior to the opening ol the proceedings a blind man with a ten-lior.sc-powcr gramophone had taken up iiis stand close by, at the junction of Mcroer and "Willis streets, and tlic speakers delivered themselves to the dccompaniment of ” Ole Folks at Home/' “Tho Grave Where My Gentle Mother Sloops” and other familiar airs. Just as Mr T. K. Taylor, M.H.K., was about to address the meeting the lights m Mercer street went out, and the remainder of the proceedings was gone through in semi-darkness. Mr W. H. Hampton, president of the Trades Council, presided.

The chairman said that at tho commencement they found tho Shops and Offices Act hung up on the excuse of a test ease being taken. It was broken by the shopkeepers of the city on the fidvico of the man who ought to have been tlie first to demand its enforcement— tiio Premier. They were not present to discuss the merits of the net, but to say that whether it was a right or a just law, it should have been enforced, and to protest, against any authority outside of Parliament overriding a law passed by Parliament. (Applause.)

Mr W. H. Westbrooke moved, “ That .this meeting emphatically protests against the state of anarchy existing at present in connection with the nonenforcement of the Shops and Offices Act, and calls upon all lovers of constitutional government to realise the danger to the democracy in allowing the views of a few malcontents to override the expressed will of Parliament.” Ho went on to say that he was sure Uioy would agree with him that any Inan who did not uphold law and order was acting against the hast interests of the community. If the act was not enforceable through legal difficulties, the Labour Department should have taken tho public into its confidence, and should bring tho matter before the next session of Parliament. Ho failed to sco why tho Mayor should have refused to convene a.'meeting of citizens lo protest against the non-enforcement of tho act.

Mr T. E. Taylor, M.H.R., who was received with applause, said ho had no hesitation in seconding tho resolution. Whether tho act was a wise one or not, it was the duty of this country, or of any democratic country, to enforce the law until it was either amended or repealed. There was ono power in this country, and only ono, which had a right to govern, and that was tho will of tho people; and until the will of tho people* destroyed or amended tho act, it should have been enforced. (Hear, hear.) There was no will of the people If tho act of ono man was to supersede statute law. Ho. did not believe that <ho act was very faulty, and ho thought there had been a lot of unnecessary noise made about it. There was noise made about the Half-holiday .Act'; thousands declared it would ruin their business; and to-day they were its warmest supporters, and would he the first to resent being deprived of its liberty. (Hear, hear.) Tho action of tho Premier in connection -with the Shops and Offices Act had been undignified, unconstitutional, and more dangerous than ho had known any Minister to l>e guilty of since he had been acquainted with New Zealand politics. Tho man who was guilty of political cowardice and there was no greater coward than tho Premier when they got his hack up against a straight wall to fight him—was tho man who would humbug them and interfere with' constitutional law when ho found it ■would suit him. Did they remember, fn connection with tho Newtown hotels, the way ho hod allowed them to keep ■open, until they stuck him up against ■n wall and made him hav© the law enforced? Tho man who did that was the same who in America - would be boss of a Tammany ring. Tho Pro-, ■micr had reached a point of his political career when tho democracy oug,,, to seize upon hiin and throw him down. Supposing the law was faulty, had tho Premier a right to go and stop its operation? He believed that tho measure Would prove tho physical salvation to Iho daughters and sons of many a poor shopkeeper. (Hear, hear.) H© knew of those who worked from nine o'clock in the‘morning until eleven at nigiu. (A, voice; “Why don’t you interfere with the dairying industry?”) it would not bo many years until the dairy people would have to toe tne line. There were children of dairy farmers who were unable to keep awake during school hours, owing to the hours they had to work at homo. (Hear, hear.) This class of law was absolutely necessary in a free country. He would be in favour of stopping (ho products of the sweating shops in older countries from coming into competition with the products’ of New Zealand. Ho did not know who was to blamo for this act—he supposed they all Wore—but at least it would bo admitted that those members who stopped until the end of the session were no more to blamo than some of tho others who were cackling about tho act, and who on the day it was passed weno on tho racecourses of the colony. Hie was not apologising for the act, but when tho Premier tried to make out •that tho Upper House was responsible for the whole of its faults, ho joined issue with him. At the time it came down, it was thought that the Premier would take the High Commissionership. The Premier was utterly careless about the bill, and did not seem to give a toss whether it was rejected or not. Tho hill, when finally passed, was agreed to without a division. It was tho duty of tho Premier to see that whatever was passed by tho Tipper House was properly revised by tiio Lower Chamber. Tho fact was that they were about dead ripe for a change in their Parliamentary procedure, and in their Parliamentary parties. He believed that in the coming session the Premier would bo taught, and faught effectively, by those who did not fear him and who were more honest from a political standpoint, who had moro courage, and as much business ability, if not more, thpt he would have either to reform the party or get out. (Hear, hear.) The next session was likely to bo ono of the toughest the Premier had ever handled,. and it was high time. He believed that the act required to ho reconsidered, and that the hour of closing should ho uniform, except for chemists and ono or two other businesses. Ho thought they should not discriminate' between' whero ono ivos

employed and more than that number. Parliament should deal as carefully as possible witli tho interests involved, and try to inflict as little hardship as possible upon the different classes ot shopkeepers. (Applause.) Mr W. T. Young wished to endorse every word that had been said by Taylor regarding the political cowardice exhibited by the Premier in connection with the act. From the day the act came into force, the Premier had shown nothing but cowardice m connection with its administration, and it was a disgrace to any Executive to take up tho attitude which our Executive had taken in regard to its administration. Ho hoped that as time went on shopkeepers would realise the necessity of tho act, and turn round and give it hearty support. (Hear, Hear.) Mr F. M. B. Fisher, M.H.R., who was greeted with applause, said the whole question was whether tho Premier was justified in suspending one oi the statute laws of the colony. Uerc they going to be governed constitutionally or otherwise? Were they going to allow this West Coast Oliver Cromwell to walk over them with his hob-nailed boots? (Hear, hear.) Ho was afraid tho Premier was in for a very hot time. Tho progressive party in this country wanted to do what he ought to have done. They wore going to take very good care in the future that lie should not suspend any law passed by the representatives of tho people. He believed that Parliament would insist on its being one of tlio first measures dealt with, and he would klo his best to assist in bringing it before the- House. They should remember the methods by which it was passed—in the dying hours ot tiio session by a House of eighteen out of eighty members. (Mr Taylor: “It was nOt a quorum.”) They must get tho government back into the hands oi tho people, or wipe out Parliament altogether and lot Dick run tho whole; show. The Premier had encouraged people to a state of anarchy—to break the law—and he had used the Crown Law Officers as loopholes for that purpose. Tho time was ripe when a certain section of the Premier’s own party would see that he was put in his place, or gob out. Ho considered that there ought to be a conference between the Shopkeepers’ Association and tho Shop Assistants’ Association, and let them come to unanimous -terms. By doing so they would bo able to get a satisfactory law in New Zealand. Ho was in favour of the resolution, and hoped it would have the effect it was intended to have. (Applause.) Mr C. H, Izard, president or the Shop Assistants’ Association, said he was not there to discuss whether the act was .a good act or a bad one. The question was whether our great democracy was to be carried on as it ought to be, or whether when it put a statute on the book that statute was to be treated as waste paper. If that were so, neither their lives* their property, nor anything they possessed were safo for one instant. (Hear, hear.) If one law could bo suspended, why not suspend the Criminal Code, or any other statute? If this act had been brought into force as it might t'o have been—and ho did nob think a single person" would say that it ought not to have been.—when Parliament met on Juno 27th, its members would know the faults and good points of the act, and bo able to amend it. The act had never been brought into operation so far. They had been told of an “ indulgent interpretation” of earlyclosing clause by the Magistrates. Would a Magistrate give an indulgent interpretation of any of the criminal statutes or city by-laws? Tho proper people to amend the laws were tho neonle who had made them. They had liacf an agitation by the shopkeepers and shop assistants, and nobody had had tho pluck to give tho act a trial. It was against that class of interference by tho Government that every British people had. struggled for centuries. The shop assistants would have been glad to have seen the act brought into force. If it wero proved to tho shop''assistants that any particular class of shopkeepers would suffer under tho act, they would be the last to insist that such a class should bo ruined, because they had to earn their living by tho shopkeepers. (Hear, hear.) Ho approved of such a conference as that suggested by Mr Fisher. The shop assistants wore prepared to> agree to an alteration of clause 3 of tho act so that certain businesses—snob as confectioners, hairdressers and restaurants should bo entitled to bp carried on to a later hour. Ho felt sure that a conference such as suggested would result in such a recommendation to Parliament that there would be no difficulty in arranging a satisfactory bill nest session. (Applause.)

The resolution was then put to the meeting, and declared carried with ono dissentient.