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60
The administration of these Acts is by no means a light
task. The laws are extremely complicated and difficult by
reason of the numerous provisos and exceptions they contain,
and it is realised that shop-keepers may easily contravene
the less known and more obscure provisions of the
Acts without any wilful intention; accordingly, every care
is taken to administer the law with discretion and with the
object of pointing out to shop-keepers contraventions which
may be noted as the result of inspections. In this connection,
advice and information is freely given when occasion arises.
It has been estimated that Kingston contains well over
900 shops, in which approximately 6,000 assistants are employed,
including about 1,000 under the age of 18 years,
classed as " young persons ". It will be understood, therefore,
that the executive duties are very heavy, but progress
is being made. During 1936 an effort was made to arrange
the inspections systematically and although most of the visits
were to shops in the central a'rea, the smaller shops in outlying
roads were not omitted altogether. Three hundred
and twenty-seven visits were made during 1936, compared
with 223 during 1935.
With regard to the closing of shops during periods
of public holidays, e.g. Christmas, it is unfortunate that
the local agreement which is usually reached by a majority
vote of the business community is not generally observed.
I do not refer to foodshops in this connection but to trades
which may be classed as "luxury trades". Experience has
shown that where these shops remain open on a day when
most other shops are closed, the amount of business done
has been negligible and the only apparent result of the action
of the owners has been to deprive their assistants of the
extra day of rest. The local authority cannot require all
shops to close on the days not counted as Bank Holidays,
but when attention was drawn to cases where intention to
remain open was known, the occupiers of the shops were
interviewed and I am glad to say that with the exception
of one case during Christmas, 1936, the efforts made to
secu're uniformity proved successful.