Time to clock-watch

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 6

Time to clock-watch

Tonight i£’ - t£e “shortest” night of the year; the night when New Zealand loses an hour to -introduce daylight saving. The official time of the change is 2 a.m. tomorrow, when clocks should be advanced an hour to 3 a.m., but for most people it will be a ■case of putting the clock on an hour just before they go to bed. Problems can occur. Some forget, and arrive an hour late tomorrow’. In one household last vear, two members of the family —? unbeknown to each other — each advanced the household

clock by an hour on the first night. But by now — this is the fourth consecutive year of daylight saving in New Zealand — the change generally goes smoothly. . What does sometimes cause problems, however, is the advance, by an hour, of times printed on timetables, international airline schedules, and the like. It must be borne in mifid throughout the period of daylight saving, which will end on March 5. (A similar problem occurs with garden sundials — unless of course they are dug up and given a 30-degree twist.)

For some New Zealanders, however, there will be no daylight saving. Not that they need it; they have plenty of it through the summer. Scott Base, New Zealand’s Antarctic station, will continue on New Zealand standard time, as will the neighbouring American base at Mc■Murdo. Apart from all this, daylight saving will prove beneficial: for each week that it is in existence, New Zealand will save more than $lOO,OOO in overseas funds which otherwise would have been spent on fuel oil.