I found it this morning. In other posts for other display issues a saw recommendation to try default templates (Bees & Protostar) I thought what the heck, tried them and display was perfect. Then it became a rather simple exercise of viewing the source for my erroneous display and I found the css style for the stars.
By editing the css for Front end CSS file (Hikashop->System->Configuration->Display->CSS Tab) and adding
.hika_comment_listing_stars{
width:125px !important;
}
to the end of the file fixed it.