SUPREME COURT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 74, 10 November 1911, Page 6

SUPREME COURT.

AN APPEAL DISMISSED. •■ (Per Press Association.) Wellington, November 10. Judgment was given by the Chief Justice to-day in an appeal case undfcr the Shops and Offices Act. Mr. Archer, draper, was convicted and fined one shilling by the Magistrate for having employed an assistant after 9 h.in. Counsel for appellant con-tv-ndeu that half an hour’s grace should be allowed, after which the employment of an assistant" became a penal Offence. The Solicitor-General maintained that 9 o’clock was the absolute time. It was admitted that a sale was made at 9.15. His Honour sai'l nnpollant was rightly convicted, and the appeal must be dismissed. Sub-section -3, providing for halfhoar’s grace, was not meant to apply to breaches of sub-section (1) of section 3, under which appellant was prosecuted. The plain meaning of the Statute was that 9 o’clock was the closing holir, and he saw no reason why it should be departed from.