The Short Title of this Act is “The Shops and Shop assistants Acts Amendment Act, 1901.”

Section three of “The Shops and Shop-assistants Act, 1894,” and section seven of “The Shops and Shop-assistants Act Amendment Act, 1895,” are hereby repealed, and the following enacted in lieu thereof: “All shops in a city, borough, or town district, except those wherein is carried on exclusively one or more of the businesses of a fishmonger, a fruiterer, a confectioner, a coffeehouse-keeper, an eating house-keeper, or the keeper of a bookstall on a railway-platform, shall be closed in each week on the afternoon of one working-day at the hour of one of the clock. Whenever a public holiday or half-holiday occurs in any week, it shall be a sufficient compliance with this Act if a shopkeeper closes his shop on such holiday or half-holiday instead of on the closing-day under this Act.”

All chemists’ shops may be opened, but only for the supply of medicines and surgical appliances, between the hours of seven and nine o’clock in the evening, but not longer, on the day appointed for the closing of shops; and any chemist may at any time in the afternoon of a day appointed for the closing of shops supply any medicines or surgical appliances which are urgently required, but he shall then open his shop only for such purpose.