THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1904. THE SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13136, 21 November 1904, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1904. THE SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

The discussions of the past week concerning the Shqps and Offipes Act have had the effect of clearing the air very considerably. • It is now believed tliat an excess of zeal marked the steps that were taken by the Department of Labour to bring the Act iii its entirety intq immediate operation. The official announcement that the requirements of the Act with respcct to the early closing of shops . are already- binding upon traders 'is said to have been premature. It is questionable whether the provisions aro yet in force. jVlrSeddoi} h|msqlf,* the author of the law aiid the Minister in charge =of . the,.-Department that lias to 'administer thp laiy, is responsible for that statement. ' In his anxiety, of which the Trades Ooyncil in Wellington cpjnplajps, to suggest methods whereby the shopkeepers 'can evade the law ho has had placed qjt tls Statute Bpok, he lias-inade a fjlsppvery that leads hinj to believe that the early closing provisions,: ■jvhjch apply qi)ly to the bined'- 1 districts"; of' Auckland, Wellinga'nd 'Dunedin, qjjjiofc.

take -effect until he has, by Gazotte notice, specified the boundaries of each ■' combined district." The matter is doubtful because it is provided in section 8, subsection 2, of the Act that till and town districts, any one of which is within a mile-of any other, shall be deemed to constitute a "combined district." • And to have this point settled a test case is, we avo told, . being arranged in Wellington, lleally, however, little will be gained by the settlement of the question of whether " combined districts" are already in existence or not. If they re not, all that ia necessary is a stroke of tho peu on Mr Seddon's part iii order to briug them into existence. It is his duty under the Act. to specify each "combined district," and when that is done, even if lie is correct—as ho probably is—in assuming that there is no "combined district" until the Gazette notice is issued, the early closing clause will come immediately into operation. In the face of this certainty, it is of small importance to secure a judioial decision upon tho point that will be in issue in the test case now being arranged in Wellington. Mr Seddon's ingenuity lias not yot suggested a means by which tho provisions of the early closing clause may be defeated when it definitely becomes operative. He has so far done nothing more than weakly express the opinion that it would have been better if cortain classes of shopkeepers, in whose favour an exemption is made in respect of tho weekly, half-holiday, had been excepted from tho requirements of tho early closing clause. That is, however, no new discovery. It is r. point that has been drummed in upon the Government daily during the past week, and witli increased insistence on each succeeding day. In expressing the opinion at which he has now arrived, but which ho" reserves leave to alter jf circumstances seem to render a change of view desirable, Mr Seddon is only stating what to the ordinary citizen lias been obvious from the beginning. It is small comfort to the chemist and the fruiterer, however, to bo told that it would have been 'better if the Legislature had renumbered the peculiar conditions of their business. What they demand to know, and what the. general public which i 9 threatened with serious inconveuieuee demands to know, is why the Legislature did not think of what it was doing when it passed this clause. To the extent that they apparently failed to keep themselves conversant with the proceedings of Parliament, as recorded in the daily press, the shopkeepers may possibly have themselves to thank for the enactment of a provision that may aft'ec,*; many of them very seriously; but that aspect of the ease does not relievo the Legislature of the odium that rightly attaches to it over the adoption on tho last day of the session of a clause, smuggled into the Shops and Offices Bill iu the Upper House, that effected a radical alteration in the provisions of the measure and that seeks to effect, also, a distinct change in tho social customs of the people. Parliament stands, iu fact, selfcondemned. No greater admission of its inability satisfactorily to perform its duties can be looked for than that furnished in the resolution of the Auckland members that "if no other constitutional means are found to get out of the difficulty a special session should he summoned." The proposal is not one that will commend itself to the consideration of the taxpayers: the price is too heavy a one for the public to pay in- order that the blunders committed by its legislative servants may be remedied. Nor is the principle of a second session for special legislation to be supported unless the circumstances are of the most exceptional character. In this case the circumstances are not exceptional. The Shops and Offices Act was passed under conditions that every year mark the passage of much of the colony's legislation. And the proper remedy is for the public to insist 011 the adoption of sane methods in its legislative halls, and, if need be, to dismiss its present legislators in order to achieve that end.