DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 173, 24 July 1928, Page 10

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

DEBATE COMMENCES WEDNESDAY.

THE LESSONS OF EXPEIi.^i; FOIIMHR Oi'l'ON LXTS Now J SUPPORT KIIS. i (Bv ADVOCATE.. i The • i 111 i;i 1 debate on the Suiiinn i ; lime Bill is set down for Wednesday m' tiiis wee!;, and there seems to be no j'le&tion thai it « ill be watched with aj keen niea.-uie of personal interest such I as is accorded to very few subjects dis-! cussed in Parliament. Mr. I. k. >idey will be able to address j the Hou<e with all the strategical advan-| tago ot the satisfactory trial during last j summer. Naturally there has been si.me) criticism—never yet has an important | innovation commanded universal appro-) \al at first—but the criticism has madually subsided as a result of the practical experience turning out so much better than the opponents at first anticipated. The general position appears to be that nearly all who favoured the measure a year ago are now more fully confirmed in their opinion, those who were neutral have discovered that there are more advantages than they had formerly appreciated, and of those who were originally antagonistic a good many now realise that the advantages far outweigh any real or fancied disadvantages. Of tho latter a large proportion are the farming community, for they have found from actual experience that the disadvantages were exaggerated, a point which, was always emphasised by advocates of the measure, for no large body of public opinion in a country like New Zealand would ever be so foolish as to support any scheme that would be detrimental to the primary industries. L'nder these circumstances it is not surprising that many of the farming organisations are now definitely ranged on the side of Daylight Saving, and it is difficult to see how any member of Parliament who supported the measure last year can logically take up any attitude other than giving it still more active support this year. ' Originally regarded by many people merely as a scheme by which sports bodies could get a little extra time for j play, it is now seen that commercial and i manufacturing interests arc giving even more definite support than they did a ; year ago, while practical experience has , gained the more active advocacy of the ' professions—medical and educational— which, was formerly accorded only through knowledge of what has happened in other countries.

It can be emphatically stated that all the advantages gained in a place like England are still more pronounced in New Zealand, for two important reasons. The first is that there is more need for it herie than there is in a country which is so much more distant from the equator, and where the eveninss are already so long in summer that the people of New Zealand envy the conditions in the British Isles, even without Daylight Saving. Thus a cablegram last week announced that in Birmingham there was brilliant sunshine one day for 15 hours and 18 minutes. This would be impossible in Auckland, for on the longest dajr the sun is only above the horizon here lor 14 hours and 42 minutes. The rer.son is that Birmingham is about 1000 miles further from the equator than Auckland, while 1000 miles still further away—in the north of Norway—the days are 24 hours long in the height of summer, and Daylight Saving is therefore not required. In other words, the nearer a place is to the equator, the more does it require Daylight Saving, and that is why New Zealand requires it more than England. Of course, it does not make the day a minute longer; it merely takes away an hour from the morning, where it is practically wasted in a modern community', and adds it to the evening, where it can be enjoyed by everyone.

The second reason why New Zealand requires Daylight Saving more than England is that nearly all England ,as well as the whole of Scotland and Ireland, are west of Greenwich, from which the time is calculated, so that they already pot limited relief, to the extent to which clock time is ahead of their real local time. But in New Zealand the whole of the North Island and quite a good share of the South Island are east of 172J degrees', from whith the standard time is calculated. In all this territory real local time is ahead of clock time, at the extreme East Cape to the extent of about 40 minutes at certain periods, bo that at Gisborne the introduction of the measure does little more than correct the disadvantage under which that town is ordinarily placed. This argument applies with more or less force to all New Zealand except Otago, Westland, and parts of Canterbury and Nelson.

However, this latter is only a minor detail; the main fact is that in a place so near the equator as New Zealand the days even in summer are so short that the only practicable way to utilise the limited hours of daylight to the full advantage is to put on the clock for a certain period, and public opinion apparently supports Mr. Sidev's proposal to make it one hour during those months when the mornings would otherwise be largely wasted.