WHO IS A. GROCER?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7849, 11 July 1911, Page 1

WHO IS A. GROCER?

PETITION POE E-UJ.LY CLOSING. The petition signed by master, grocers and presented to the City Council*' praying that the general closing hours for all shops selling should be 6 p-m., is mooting with considerable opposition in, various quarters. Thoro are two counter petitions, one signed by small shopkeepers, whose principal trade is done after the large shops are closed, and one signed by Chlnesd shopkeepers. The council’s duty in regard to the main petition is' to verify the signatures and find out whether the petition is signed by a majority of those in the trader It is then forwarded on to the Government for gazetting. A corporation official informed a “Times’"’ representative yesterday that one of the difficulties facing the council was the definition of a grocer. "What is a grocer and who is a grocer?■” he said, ‘'and we have to find that out. If bacon and eggs are groceries, are small goods men to be classed as grocers? That is only one of the various lines* that grocers sell and numerous other stores not really groceries are sold by grocers, such as clothes lines and clothes pegs, also sold by'ironmongers/' Since the views of the master grocers were placed before the City Council last Tuesday night, several' persons, who have signed the main petition, have written to the town clerk, asking him to ©rase , their names as they had. signed under a misapprehension.