SMALL SHOPKEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 86

SMALL SHOPKEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION.

THE QUESTION OF HOURS. A meeting was held in the Trades Hall on Monday evening under the auspices of the Small Shopkeepers’ Association, Mr G. S. Thomson opened the meeting by reading portions of a circular letter recently issued by the New Zealand. Employers’ Federation, through which ha said, an insidious move was being made through the Employers’ Federation by the large retailers of the Dominion to get an amendment to the Shops and Offices Act, with a view to compulsorily closing all shops (excepting railway and wharf bookstalls and chemists’) at 6 p.m. daily. The reference in the circulai to Hindus ana Asiatics was described by him as merely a “red herring” drawn across the scent, as was also, he contended, the suggestion that, to enable all shops to be kept open till 6 p.m., one half-hour’s overtime daily should he paid to shop assistants. The Arbitration Court was referred to in the circular, and he contended, that the Arbitration Court should function purely for the purpose of dealing with wages, hours, and general working conditions, but should not be permitted to deal with the question of the closing hours of shops. That couid be done best by our members of Parliament and not by the Arbitration Court over which we to-day bad very little control. His one concern in suggesting feat small storekeepers should be permitted to remain open till say 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., was to prevent, as far as possible, the formation of large retail trusts that would help to control prices and keep them at a high figure while simultaneously forcing down wages by increasing the ranks of the unemployed through small shopkeepers being thrown on to the labour inancet* Tliis, he maintained, would be able result if the leg-istattdn proposed tiy the Employers' Federation Was ever allowed to become hr?. I\lr J. H. Waigth, general manager of the Cooperative Fruitgrowers’ Association, contended that the early closing of all who sold fruit would mean a very bad business for the growers whom he represented and that a reduction in the consumption of such a necessary commodity as fresh fruit would mean a reduction in the number who could be employed in fruit orchards He would be quite willing to ask the fruitgrowers to a petition to Parliament against the proposed legislation. ' - Another speaker was quite satisfied that if carried the proposal of the Employers’ Federation would result in many confectionary workers being thrown out of work and on to the crowded labour market.