The Press Saturday, March 28, 1931. The Reform of the Calendar.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20198, 28 March 1931, Page 14

The Press Saturday, March 28, 1931. The Reform of the Calendar.

Although the League of Nations blesses , I the conference on the reform of the | calendar,' to be. held in Geneva in, October,, it, commits itself to. no confi-dent-hope of reform. Perhaps," it says, in a communication received by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce,, "perhaps 1931. will go down in history "as the year in whiclr it. was decided " that the calendar given to the world "by Julius Csesar .in 46 B.C. had .out»lived, its usefulness, and that a better " system of arranging the days, weeks, " and months was adopted T>y civilised " nations." To say ; more be rash» While the reform <)f the calendar has been discussed more or less continuously for-the. past twenty years, it is very unlikely that any attempt, to amend it will be successful until the merits of a definite scheme have been 'made so manifest that natural antipathy -to change"will be overcome; but" since the calling of- the conference follows the report of a special committee of the League, appointed to deal witb the subject, s,brief suryey of the position has some interest.; - • • i The 7 Julian" Galendai 11 , thtiugL- a vast i improvement, oin the system it replaced, | was only approximately correct. The 1 year is.not exactly 365 i day: long and so the' addition of one leap-day in | every fopi years,left a.STOaII. of | error, amounting to one day in 128 years. By the middle of the sixteenth century the seasons, were arriving some ten days: earlier than they should. • have; - and-. in 1082 Gregory . XIIL rectified this by omitting ten deiys fromthat year apd providing fhat'thenceforth there should Jbe only U7 leap-days in each period of 400 years, thereby reducing the error to one day in about 3600 years. The Julian Calendar was not-replaced by the Gregorian in the British 'lsles until 1752, when eleven days 'were omitted 'from that year. In May, 1923, the Greek Church," which I until then had adhered to the Julian Calendar, adopted the Gregorian. , Three years later the Turkish Empire j decided to substitute" the. Gregorian for its own calendar, which, being based on a year of 354 days .or 13 lunations, was hopelessly at variance with all others; and finally, -in October, 1928, th& 1 Orthodox Church iu Egypt fell into line " with the Greek Church. Thus the'leading peoples of the. t Wld* With. theex<»pti,on ; of .th 6 Jewish have attained uniformity' in the civil calendar, stf that the question of its reform'now concerns, a large part of "mankind.- *. v The.' defects in our calendar system arise : frqni 6 JfW,o 1 the « unequal lengths SE/j£e months .and ' the' movaateiity oif Easter ; and; other Church festivals; and attempts at reform jum at ,*reducing; liiese ("disabilities to' a be awiueh ? mlits''and tHbie whici:bfeak'uplthe Siiice year of '365 days falls iiito four quarters of 91' days or t l3„weeks eapb,,, leaving one day over except in leap-year, when there would be two Vhw' been,suggested that ■tould *'30)30;, taOl* dayfe/ lay oy?ir in f each year ayy 29th in leap-year I as outside,tbe weekly stlier'' and '33^y r JDbcember, 25th» ayr'theri Y^s Day ane and 'others similar , 'yg some •events are u'laffocted; and no.altera- : tables -are inbe aagn thfl^ i[- be the It 1 " these weejdy w

statistical advantages- Would be secured by the ability to measure truly current fluctuations in,imports and exports and in business affairs generally. The 13rhonth calendar certainly- has much in it to appeal to a commercial community like New Zealand. In the United States a, questionnaire vras submitted to 480 organisations, mainly industrial, and'9B.3 per cent, of these were in favour of the proposed scheme. To turn to the second defect of the present system, the drifting dates for -'Easter and other Church festivals, the Committee in its report advocates that Easter Sunday should always fall on April 15th and Whit-Sunday on June Bth. It is difficult to foretell what reception this part* of the report will'' meet with; but there are indications that the Protestant Churches generally, are in favour of reform, that Jewish orthodox circles are agreeable to any change acceptable to the majority, and that the Roman Catholic Church is against all alteration in the present practice with regard to Easter. The adoption of the 13-month calendar is, however, independent of the fixation of Easter and in the education of the public mind on the subject the two "questions can and should be kept apart. The change-over from the old to the new system, if the advantages promised are considered a sufficient inducement, can be effected without alienating the support of those who would view with, misgiving or even hostility any departure from the present mode of computing the date of Easter.