NEW ZEALAND STANDARD TIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 141, 4 March 1918, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND STANDARD TIME

Sir—l noticed 'some time ago theWellington- Philosophical Society recommended putting the clock on half an hour, and now the Society of Civil Engineers has likewise advocated this. This is all very well for the North Island, and the chief advocates are North Island men, hut it is a bit rough on the South Island.

The winter is the time wo have to think about. To take extremes, the sun rises in June nearly one hour and ten minutes earlier in Gisborne that it does in Invercargill, and the comparison is intensified by Gisborne being a mild climate in Winter and Invercargill the reverse. The proposal would be all very well if New Zealand sloped N.W. to S.E. instead of N.E. to S.W., as it docs. I can see no sense in taking Now Zealand time from a meridian away out to sea to the east of Gisborne. It would save a little bother in astronomical calculations, but would eraato mncfi inconvenience. The stm universally regulates the day, yet no place in New Zealand would go by the,

6un. The present system is far better; in that it takes the meridian 172deg. 30niin., which divides New Zealand nearly in half. If there be any change ifc would be better to put the North Island clocks ou a quarter of an hour and tho South Island ones back a quarter of an hour. This would give us daylight nearer apparent or sun or -ships' time for both islands, but I think the present system the better. If the clocks be put on half an hour as advocated, it would be advisable to put all'the South Island trains and arbitration awards' also on half an hour, so as not to inconvenience tho South Island public more than the North Island. The express train now leaves Duuediu at 8 o'clock. This is in daylight, but not much more eo in June, and it necessitates having one's breakfast in part of May, all June, and part of July by lamp-light. Here, in Timaru, the sun rises in Juno and the first half of July at about 7.40 a.m., and is not much above the horizon at 8 o'clock, breakfast time, and on a dull morning I light the lamp for breakfast during these months. Put the clock on half an hour, and I would have to light the lnmp all June and July, and all labourers about here in those months who start work at 8 a.m. will have not only to have their breakfast in the dark, but have to start work before the sun rises, and in Otago and Southland in semi-darkness. But of course, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that their fellow-workmen in the North Island have a balmy sunshine at that hour.

Mr._ Martin is not quite fair when he. said at tho Engineers' Conference "that Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart had different times, and brought them into line • with no evil effect, but-that they just got ud a bit earlier and did not know it." The reply is that the climate's in air these places aro milder than Otago or Canterbury; even Hobart is considerably north of Christchurch, and Hobart is only ten minutes west of the meridian from which the common time is taken, whereas Christchurch would be 30 minutes, and Mr. Martin should havo mentioned, that the only towns that get up a little earlier than they would if the apparent time or sun time were taken are Hobart and Melbourne, whereas Sydney and Brisbane lie in bed later than they would otherwise do.

Let those who advocate this change try a little manual labour in Otago or Southland during June and July, starting work at 7.30 a.m., as they advocate (instead of at 8 a.m.) in the dark, with the ground and windows all frozen hard, after a breakfast by lamplight, and T think the next meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Institute and Society of Engineers will rather advocate putting the clock hack a quarter of an hour instead of on half an hour for the winter months. There is also another objection, the evenings are so light in summer that it is not easy, in Otago, to sleep before 9 p.m., that being the time those who start work at 8 a.m. usually turn in, whereas the pronoscd system would delay them till 9.30 p.m. I have been told that South Africa has altered her time to correspond with Greenwich, but this means the inhabitants stop in bed an hour longer and sit up an hour later.

An argument constantly advancedbj daylight-savers is the immense saving in gas and coal. This, of course, does not apply in winter, as the greater majority got up by artificial light, and is so far as coal is concerned does .not apply to cooking, and the answer in s& far as gas is concerned is that gas is being quickly superseded by electricitj, and those who have examined the statistics of the Lake Coleridge supply, which is a continuous supply, will notice that the largest amount of elec tricity is consumed between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., when the manufacturers are using it, but from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., when it is chiefly used for' lighting, there is an immense quantity, running to waste. , I sincerely hope our time will be left alone.—l am, etc., i • C. H. TRIPP.