BUTCHERS FINED

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20832, 16 June 1939, Page 9

BUTCHERS FINED

KEPT SHOP OPEN EASTER SATURDAY OFFENCE ONE CASE DISMISSED (Special to Times.) TE AWAMUTU, Thursday The inspector of awards proceeded against several butchers at the monthly sitting of the Magistrate’s Court, held at Te Awamutu yesterday, for keeping open their shops on Easter Saturday morning after the prescribed hour, 7 a.m. Two cases were not defended, and in a third the magistrate, Mr W. •11. Freeman, S.M., dismissed the information. The undefended cases xvere those against S. Priscott and Sons, Ohaupo, and Field and Sons, Ohaupo. The inspector said that he visited Ohaupo on Easter Saturday morning and found the shops open after 7 a.m., which was the closing time for that day. Mr S. Preston, for the respective defendants, said that the facts were admitted, but it was obvious that the award was made for city shops. Country people were busy in the early morning and it was impossible to get to the shops before the lixed hour for closing, if they were unable to shop within the proscribed hours, they would have had to wait from Thursday to Tuesday to procure meat. The magistrate imposed fines of £i in each case with costs and expenses 6a 6ct Not Open for Business The defence offered by T. Welch. Te Awamutu, by his counsel, Mr A. R. Hill, was -thal the shop was not open for business, but that the defendant and his staff were in the shop solely to fill orders for hotels, which was permitted. No meat was on display, and there was no sale to customers in the shop, which had been kept locked except to allow one of the men to take away a basket. The shop was closed about eight minutes after 7 o’clock. The inspector said that at 7.15 on the morning of Easter Saturday, he entered the shop occupied by the defendant and found him and two men making up orders, lie thought that the shop was open for business, though there were no customers about. The magistrate dismissed the information.