DAYLIGHT-SAVING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 239, 2 July 1908, Page 7

DAYLIGHT-SAVING.

THE ENGLISH Bill. SELECT COMMITTEE FAVOURABLE. , DONE BY THE CLOCK. (BY TELEGRAPH—riIIiSS ASSOCIATION— COrYKIGIIT.) (Rec. July 1, 9.50 p.m.) London, July 1. . A Solecfc Committee of the House of Commons has reported in favour of the Daylight Saving Bill, which proposes to advance tho clock by one hour upon tho third Sunday of April, and to alter it in the opposite direction by ouo. hour on tho third Sunday in September. CLAIMS OF SUPPORTERS. A manifesto issued in April by a number of those who support tho Bill would indicato that, in its, form as it passed its second reading in the House gf Commons, on March 26, it diifored in detail from tho outline in the above cablegram; but possibly the .Bill has been amendod in Committee. We quote from this manifesto as followsTho suggestion is to obtain the use of 80 minutes more daylight each day-for several months in the year by advancing the clock 20 minutes on each of the first four Sundays in April. In similar manner tho clock would be set back 20 minutes ori each of the first four Sundays in September. This alteration would utilise morning air and daylight, and enable all to spend an-additional hour and 20 minutes of their .leisure out of doors at the end of the day during certain" of the spring, summer, and autumn months. We believo that this must materially increase tho health, happiness, anu moral well-being of every, individual, and more especially'of those workers in our large towns who, being ongaged until late in .the-'day, get'so little time for open-air recreation. It is also obvious that the resulting, economy of artificial illumination would represont a. vast sum to; tho whole nation and a notablo diminution in tho expendituro of every individual." "We'do not know (writes 'The Guardian') whether Mr. Pearce's Daylight-saving Bill is destined to become anything more than a 'hardy annual' at best; and we.imagine that the scheme for 10-minute hours in April and 80-minute hours in September would bo met by the average Englishman with somo such objection as' Sir William Harcourt took to the proposal for proportionate representation—that it would mean election to Parliament by doublo acrostic. For all that, an arrangement under which'-the.golden hours of summer mornings should not be so entirely lost as thoy aro t'o most of us would bo a great gain; and wo do not despair of seeing it gradually effected by a combined change of liours on tho part of those whose lead would liavo to.bo followed. If the Law Courts opened from March to September at nine and banks at eight there would soon be a general advance of the hours for luncheon and again for. dinner, and a while the day would perforce close earlier and ovcr.vhody get up in .bettor tinio,. Phcrc need not be an alteration of a whole hour at once, nor need tho reform stop at the measure of an hour." ■ ' ■■ ■