TWO SUNDAYS IN ONE WEEK

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 258, 7 April 1869, Page 7

TWO SUNDAYS IN ONE WEEK

(Prom the ' Sydney Mail.')

The day after we left Wellington was Thursday, and the day after that was Thursday, so that we had two Thursdays in one week. Now, we have heard people talk of what they would do when there were two Sundays in one week, as though such a thing was impossible ; but it is not nearly so impossible as it looks, and you are just as likely to have two Sundays in one week as we were to have two Thursdays. Captain Sim told us an amuisng account of a lady who went home with him and was very religious. On their journey it became necessary that they should have two Sundays, and at the close of the first Sabbath he told her that the next day would be Sabbath also; she could not believe him, and when he came on deck next morning she was busily engaged upon a piece of embroidery. He remarked how much he was suprised that she should be so employed upon the Sabbath, but still she thought he was joking until eleven o'clock, when, as usual, they had Divine service. She could not be made to comprehend how there could be two Sundays in one week, and as the captain presisted in keeping his Sabbath, so she presisted in keeingher own; but as she was a good woman and did not wish to hurt anyone's feelings she refrained from all secular employment on the captain's Sabbath. They arrived in the Downs on Thursday, according to the captain's reckoning, and when the pilot come on board the first question she asked him was what day it was : " Thursday ma'am," he replied. Still she doubted, and next day, when they landed at Gravesend, she asked the same question of the boatman, who replied, " Friday ;" and when she reached the shore she asked half-a-dozen more before she would reluctantly admit that she had been wrong and the captain right. It is hardly necessary to explain that this great change of days" arises from the earth revolving upon its axis once in twenty-four hours. Greenwich is supposed to be the starting point, and from Greenwich round the earth to exactly the opposite centre are 180 deg. which are called degrees east longitude ; from that spot back to Greenwich, by the other side of the earth, is 180 deg. which are called degrees of west longitude. The sun of course is stationary, and the earth revolves from west to east. Now, if the earth starts from Greenwich at daj'-h'ght on a Sunday, and takes twenty-four hours to revolve, "the spot which left Greenwich at daylight on Sunday cannot return before daylight on Monday, so that if the day was not dropped out of the calendar in travelling across, or added to it, you would return and find yourself in a different day to the one you were keeping. Alter leaving Greenwich to proceed to Australia, the first degree in a straight line is 1 east longitude, and to proceed to America the first degree in a straight line is 1 west longitude ; for every degree of longitude east the sun rises four minutes earlier, and for every degree of longitude west four minutes later. Hence, we gain Jour minutes for each degree we sail east, and lose four minutes for every degree we sail west. Consequently, when we reach Wellington from Greenwich, we have gained 180 times four minutes, which is twelve hours. As this is but half-way round, it is quite apparent that if we should circumnavigate the globe we would gain twenty-four hours, or one day. Therefore, having gained a day in getting round the world, we want to put it into the calendar at such place as shall prevent confusion. The 180 deg. as it cuts through the Pacific Ocean in about the middle, has been chosen as the most convenient for this purpose, taking Greenwich as the meridian. Any other line would do just as well from another starting point, but this has been selected ns the best ; and universal practise has now made it a law binding upon all mariners who cross these parallels to change the day as they cross the 180 deg. In going to California, therefore, we gained a day, but in coming back we lost a day.

Take-all in Wheat. — The take- all blight, whose ravages among the wheat crops both in Australia and New Zealand have of late attracted the serious attention of the agricultural communit\', is stated by the Melbourne ' Economist 7 to be owing to the ruinous system, so largely followed in both colonies, of growing cereal crops on the same land several years in succession, without allowing the ground to rest. The best means of averting the evil consequences of this practice is stated by the same journal to be by using mineral manures, lime especially being recommended.