Easter Trading Ironies

With restrictions on Shop Trading over Easter, have you noticed:

• Good Friday, when the Government decrees that everything is shut,is the busiest working day for Government's trading hour inspectors?
• Most dairies and service stations sell FHM, Playboy and Woman's Weekly - hardly the most wholesome of publications - but you can't go to a bookstore and buy a Bible or a religous or inspirational book.
• You can't buy a bottle of wine from a responsible licensed trader when Catholic Churches serve it without a license - and to minors.
• Despite the $1000 fine, Garden Centres find it profitable to open on Good Friday - surely a sign that people are voting with their feet.

One of the things central to Christianity is a tolerance for others - the most powerful parable in the Gospels is about the Good Samaratan, who rescued and comforted a man from an enemy tribe (after two religious figures had passed by without looking twice.)

It's about time the majority of New Zealanders who don't see the need for restrictions on shop trading hours over Easter to be given the choice to shop.