“SOUNDING DEATH KNELL”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 8

“SOUNDING DEATH KNELL”

Business at Pleasant Point

Half-Holiday Change

Retailers Voice Protest

“Pleasant Point will be sounding its death knell as a business centre if it retains Friday as the late night and Saturday as the halfholiday,” said Mr A. Wood, last night when a meeting of retailers of the township was held to consider the recent change of the half-holiday by the Town Board from Thursday to Saturday. Centralisation was killing business in country towns, he said, and people were more and more going to the larger centres to trade. If the township lost Saturday as a business day it would be in danger of gradually going out of existence.

Protest at'the action of the Pleasant Point Town Board in changing the statutory half-day from Thursday to Saturday was expressed at the meeting at which the keen interest shown by the business men was illustrated by the fact that of 17 approached to attend there were 15 present. The meeting was almost wholly in support of the decision to present a petition to the Town Board and to support it with a delegation of four men. Several retailers stated that the Town Board appeared to be under a misapprehension as to the wishes of the retailers, and they considered the petition would correct that misapprehension. The petition to be presented which was drawn up at the meeting and which was signed by 11 men, is aS follows :

“We the undersigned business people of Pleasant Point do hereby petition you, and do pray that you, in your -wise judgment, will reconsider your decision and have Thursday still declared as the day for our statutory half-holiday.”

Messrs W. T. Taylor, J. Hoskins, R. Knox and W. J. Crawford, were elected to approach the Town Board as a delegation in support of the petition. The meeting had been called so that each retailer could express his opinion on which day would best serve the interests of the township, said Mr W. T. Taylor, who was elected chairman. It was essential to discover which day was desired; and if the retailers were unanimous in their wish. The Town Board had a perfect right to act as it did, as a section of the Shops and Offices Act stated that the statutory closing day in each separate district should be appointed by a special meeting of the local authority of the separate district which should be held in the month of January in each year, and of which notice by advertisement should be given at least seven days before the day of the meeting. The meeting of retailers had no power to alter the decision of the Board,, and he doubted whether it would have any effect other than that of acquainting the Board of the wishes of the retailers. The Board had had no request to effect the change which had come on the business people like a bombshell. The statement that a man had interviewed the people on the suggested change of half-day was correct, said Mr W. C. Grant, in answer to a question, but he personally was not the man mentioned. However, he had interviewed the majority of the retailers and the only thing he .'ound wrong was that the position was not clear. He had told the Town Board that two business people were opposed to anything other than a poll, and that two agreed to the change as one that had to come. “Is it not usual that the wish of the people most concerned is ih cause of the first move when the change of a long-standing custom is suggested?” asked Mr A. Wood. “Bombshell to Town Board” Mrs Bowman: It seemed a bombshell to the Town Board next day to find that the change was not the wish of the people. The Thursday half-holiday had come into practice as a result of the wish of the people, said Mr Taylor. Since then there had been no agitation and, knowing that, the busmess people considered the prevailing condition should have been maintained. Mr Wood: The Town Board appears to have attacked a precedent set for many years in changing the existing position without consulting the people. The Saturday half-day would be detrimental to business and inconvenient to customers, said Mr Taylor. There seemed to be no benefits arising from it.

Centralisation was killing business in country towns, as people were going to the larger centres to trade, said Mr Wood. Mr A. L. Thoreau pointed out that on Saturday night young men came in from the back-country, and Mrs Bowman stressed the value of the Saturday afternoon trade with campers coming from town. The argument that Saturday as the half-holiday would benefit sport, scarcely applied, said Mr A. W. Gosling. Young men were always allowed off for sport on Saturdays in Pleasant Point. A small town ir which he had been in had made the change to the Saturday half-day, and it was a complete failure, said Mr J. Hoskins. People were not prepared to dress up and go to the township on a Friday night, but would do so as a conclusion to the week on a Saturday. That town was 25 miles from Invercargill, and suffered. Pleasant Point would be far worse off.

The Town Board’s reason for the change was that sport would benefit, said Mr Taylor. In his opinion, sport would not benefit. Most of the people would go awa, for the week-end as a shut-up town would Ir.ve no attraction. If a visiting sports team came to the town the business people would miss the trade coming from the visitors.

Timaru was suffering from the Saturday half-day. Business people h"d said that Saturday morning’s trade was worthless, said Mr D. Welch. When Timaru had late night on Saturday