SMALL STOREKEEPER IS A PROBLEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 89, 6 July 1927, Page 13

SMALL STOREKEEPER IS A PROBLEM

AMENDMENTS TO ACT WORRY FOR MINISTER (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter .) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. All sides of the House wfll be interested in the bill introducing amendments to the Shops and Offices Act, which will almost assuredly be brought down this session. One of the difficulties which will face the Minister of Labour, Hon. G. J. Anderson, is that of the closing hours of shops, particularly those in the country and suburban districts, who have made persistent representation for an adjustment which will place them on a competitive basis with the big city central store. Just how the Minister is going to placate the small shopkeeper and at the same time deal fairly with those in the city will probably have to be thought out more yet before the bill is ready to be presented. An equitable balance of the trade is sought by the country storekeeper without assistants, who wishes to keep his shop open after the city stores have closed, so that he can encourage his local customers to purchase their goods as they return from the city, instead of doing all their shopping in the centre. One or two minor other things might be dealt with in this measure, but the hours of closing will prove the most contentious among members. Tobacconists have already asked to be licensed so that the sale of goods specific to their business could not be sold by others; but if the Government commits itself upon this question, there would be a danger of creating such, a wide field that an endless stream of requests would pour in from all manner of businesses claiming exclusive handling of their own particular commodities.