there are several exemptions under this clause. A set of clauses is provided to deal with the sanitation of shops and offices. The inspectors appointed under the Act have far-reaching powers, and there are severe penalties for breaches of the provisions or even attempts to evade the restrictions placed upon unfair shop-keepers who are likely to take advantage of their employés.
It has been found impracticable to make the Act apply to shops and offices without reservation, and there are “exempted trades,” such as fishmongers, fruiterers, and confectioners. One of the latest additions to the Act’s provisions states that no shop-assistant can be employed in the business of any shop before 4 a.m. in the case of bakers, butchers, and milkmen, or before 7 a.m. in any other case. By a special provision, made in 1905, Parliament agreed that workers might be employed till 11 o’clock on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and chemists’ assistants residing on the premises are allowed to supply medicine or surgical appliances outside of the hours of business defined by the Act.
Nearly every town in the colony, apart from the discussion on the principle of the Act, has been torn by a difference of opinion as to the day selected for the half-holiday. The choice rests between Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Wednesday and Thursday seem to be the favourite days, mainly on account of Saturday being the market-day for small farmers who reside near all the large towns in the colony. At 1 o’clock sharp, shops in the town put up their shutters and lock their doors on the statutory half-holiday, and the town, to all outward appearances, gives itself up to rest. The half-holiday proposal was opposed at first as an unwarrantable interference with the liberty of the subject. There is no opposition to it now, and there are very few people who do not commend it as a satisfactory provision for the health and convenience of a large section of the public. The assistants are given relief from their daily work, and the shop-keepers lose nothing, as the business which would have been done on the half-holiday waits and comes again on following days.
