SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 7

SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT.

APPLICATIONS FOR EXEMPTION. “ The matter has to be decided on the basis of public interest,'’ said Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.DL, in the Magistrate’s Court on May 7, in delivering judgment in cases in which shop keepers applied for exemption from the regulation hours as laid down by the Shops and Offices Act. A serious question was at stake, said his Worship, but in this ease the public interest must not be interpreted as the interest of tobacco smokers. Because there was a demand for tobacco at all hours it did not follow that it must be met. Tobacco was not perishable goods, and there was nothing to prevent a man laying in a stock. There was no question that it was in the public interest that there should be a limitation of the hours of trading. Most of the applicants were small shopkeepers, and in some cases widows struggling for a living. If conditional exemption could be granted iu such a way that the tobacconists wouiu not be affected it would be in the public interest to allow these people to make their living in the way they had been doing for some time past. Proprietors of marble bars and tea rooms, however, were in-quite a different position from the bulk of the applicants, said the Magistrate. If such people were called on only to lock up their tobacco outside the regulation hours he could not refuse applications made by tea rooms in the city, and if the applications were granted there would be a real risk- He. was, therefore, not inclined to grant exemption in such cases. The others were small businesses, and each should he granted conditional exemption, which meant that they must place their tobacco under lock and key. If in any case a shopkeeper was convicted of illicit trading the exemption would, ipso facto, cease. He did not think that the interests of the tobacconists would be affected. Mr A. S. Cookson asked whether there could be any appeal in these cases. The Magistrate: Only to Parliament. The matter was left (o the individual magistrates, his Worship stated, and it would be better if the legislature boldly attacked the position and made general conditions. The applications of Thomas Rutherford and Bertie H. Winchester were refused. Tn the following cases conditional exemption was granted:—Agnes G. Callender, William H. Blomfielcl, Marie Curtin, Lucille A. Stevens. Evangeline Eaton, Sarah A. Grant. Ernest F. Lee, Mary M'Laren, Neil M'Namara, Hannah M. M’Quillan, Doris M. Read. Arthur G. Monk, Walter Morgan, William Proctor, Cecil Rose, Charles Ross, Annie K. Sector, and Isabella. Sneddon.