HISTORY OF THE IDEA

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 74, 24 September 1927, Page 11

HISTORY OF THE IDEA

NIAtfY YEARS' ADVOCACY NEW ZEALAND'S LEAD

Now that New Zealand is at last to enjoy the benefits of Daylight Saying, thanks to the persistency of Mr. T. K. Sidey, through eighteen Parliamentary sessions, it is of interest to review the history of the idea to utilise to fuller advantage the longer hours of sunlight which are experienced in the summer months.

Our remote ancestors' probably all enjoyed what we now term Daylight Saving; they were up with the sun and went to bed with it, but this was from necessity rather than choice. Probably to Benjamin Franklin belongs the honour of being" the first of modern advocates of Daylight Saving. In 1874 -he read a paper entitled "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light." In this he treats the subject from a purely academic point of view, arid there seems to have been no serious advocacy of adopting any practical pressure of "daylight sav-ing-'J .. .

It "will in no way dim the glory of the halo around the head of Mr, Sidey to call attention to the fact that the first known advocate in New Zealand of Daylight Saving was Mr. 6. V. Hudson. In October, 1895, ho brought forward a scheme in which he proposed "to alter the time of the clocks at each equinox so as to bring the working hours of the day within tho period of daylight, and, by utilising the early morning, reduce the excessive use of artificial daylight wliich at present prevails." Two hours was the extent to which he proposed to advance the clocks. Like other original proposals, Mr. Hudson 's was not well received. Three years later he returned to the attack, the reception accorded his first paper showing him the kind of criticism with which he had.to contend. "My objeetofs," he said, "have hot taken the trouble to iriake themselves thoroughly conversant with the subject." Mr. Sidey 1 could say the same to-day. In replying to the conservative opinion that it was absurd to think of altering what had been the custom for so many years, Mr. Hudpon pointed out that time was "merely an abstraction devised for human convenience," and that the day in common use "did not represent any actual time interval existing in Nature."

THE FIRST ENGLISH PROPOSAL.

Mr. Hudson therefore antedated by some years Mr. Bidey's proposals, and also any serious consideration of the subject in England. It was not until 1907 that a Chelsea builder named William Willett aired his views on the subject. His idea was to put the clocks on 80 minutes, by four leaps- of 20 minutes each, and ho mot with such support that he was enabled, a year later, to have his proposals considered by a Select Committee of the English Parliament. This committee conceded the merits of the scheme, but thought the objections too great. The following y?ar a report definitely against the scheme was mado, and tlieroafter in England no more was heard of tho subject for some years, although in New Zealand Mr. Sidey was beginning his eighteen years' battle.

However, tho second year of the World War saw nearly overy country in Europe adopt the device of putting the clocks forward an hour in spring, sumruer ? and autumn. Tho motive was quito simply to get peoplo to bod an hour earlier, and out of bod and at work an hour earlier, in order to Bavo fuel for lighting and hoating. Germany was actually tho first of tho European countries to adopt daylight saving, the innovation in that country beginning at 11 p.m. on 30th April, 1910, the clocks boing put back again an hour at 1 a.m. on Ist October; France quickly followed suit, and Britain was third in the flold. Jwr first daylight saving venture beginning on 21st May in the saino year. Now daylight fluving is general throughout Europe, Britain in 1925 making it a permanent institution instead of passing a fresh Act oach year. Daylight saving at Homo now begins each year at 2 a.m. on tho day following tho third Saturday in April, and finishes on the first Saturday in October. If tho day of . commencement happens to coincido with Easter Simday, summer timo begins a woek earlier. In the United States daylight saving is not general, there boing a system of local option about it. The fact of one State having it and neighbouring States not haying it has led to difficulties, and, as a Whole, as a. result of the uncertainty of'tho movement, may bo said to have lost ground in the States. In Australia daylight saving was given a trial, but the opposition was too strong, and the experiment has not again been repeated. ■ ' - DIFFICULTIES DISAPPEAR. There wore naturally many objections against the measure when it was first mooted in England, tho arguments of tho opponents being similar to those heard recently in the Dominion. Farmers objected to it on tho grounds that it meant milking earlier and in the dark. They said, as they have said here, that labourers would b<- ablo to do nothing with the hay and corn ..harvests until the.dew had dried off, thus wasting at least an hour of work. When, however, put to the test of practice, these and other difficulties wore proved to havo been much exaggerated. True it is that a fow adjustments had to be made when daylight saving first came into operation in England. Tide tables and meteorological observations continued to be based upon Greenwich timo, but it was remarkable how easily things adapted themselves to the altered time: once tho clocks were put on hardly anyone wbb conscious of any difference except when it came to the end of the day and there was an hour extra of daylight. The "only people really con-1 scious of the sudden jump in the timo were travellers making an all-night journey in trains at the time when the clocks were put forward. The Railw.ay Department in New Zealand will not have nearly tho same number of difficult adjustments to make as was the case in England. FAR-FETCHED OBJECTIONS. Amongst tho many extraordinary objections mado to daylight saving perhaps there was none so' remarkable as that from Lord Balfonr of Burloigh, who, in 1916, opposed in tho House of Lords, "tho most absurd and ridiculous B;" that haß ever been presented to this House." Ho wanted to know what would happen to a good lady who presented her husband with twins, one being born a few minutes before the clocks w/-e put back and tho other a. few minutes after: would the actually younger of the twins be older than the actually elder, seeing that he or she by tho clock was born sooner? This difficulty has been got over by legal and other documents in which time matters are expressed in terms which indicate ordinary or summer time. AN AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING. The very first day on which Daylight Saving came into operation in England was most opportune as far as weather was concerned,- it was a beautiful, -warm, arid fine day, and the whole populace rejoiced in having it extended for another hour; it was a most auspicious , start; for an innovation which has become a welcome permanency. The reception giywute-tftte^teraMon.:

in the time was very different from what happened in England in 1751, the last occasion on which the calendar was adjusted. Up till that time New Year had been observed at the time of the Spring Equinox on 25th March. But it was decreed that, beginning on Ist January, 1752, the New Tear should commence as it does now, ana further, in order to put the calendar right, that the natural day following 2nd September should be 11th September. This was more than the mob could stand, and there were violent protests against having eleven days cut out of one's life, in spite of the fact that legislation was passed preventing the omission of these eleven days accelerating payment of any money tliat was due or of the delivery of goods. A QUESTION OF TIME. There have always been a few objections to Daylight Saving on tho ground that it is wrong to interfere with the time as set by the sun. But such objections cannot hold water for a moment. Tne mean time of New Zealand as a whole has since 1868 been reckoned at Hi hours fast on Greenwich, this being arranged by Sir James Hector. But Christchurch is about the only town in New Zealand where this time is really correct by the sun, the clocks in all places east of the meridian of Christchurch being behind the true time and all places to the west being ahead. The variation in the true time is as much as 24miri ISsec, according, to whether one is at the East Cape or at the extreme south-west corner of the South Island. Both Wellington and Auckland are nine minntss slow on the true time. DAYLIGHT SAVING IN WINTEE? Although New Zealand has lagged behind the rest of the world in its beneficial Daylight Saving measure, it still has a chance to set an example to the world in a further and similar reform. A correspondent suggests that Mr. Sidey, having at last triumphed with his Summer Time Bill should devote his attention to ameliorating the lot of the early riser in winter. Why not put the clocks back in winter, he suggests, and allow people to get up in daylight? The daylight in the afternoon would be curtailed to a corresponding amount and, as there is little enough as it ia for winter sports, the proposal is hardly likely to meet with much support.

On Tuesday next residents .of Wellington and the neighbourhood can see for themselves part of the effect of the operation of the Summer Time BilL On that day the interval between sunrise and 8 a.m. will exactly correspond to tho interval between sunrise and 8 a.m., on'the morning when Daylight Saving first comes into operation, but on Tuesday next there will not be that extra hour of daylight at tho end of the day to which we are so eagerly looking forwafd, to at the beginning of November.

William Willott has already had a memorial erected to him by a grateful peoplo at Home. When Mr. Sidoy's successful persistency is similarly recognised, it is to be hoped that his name will bo coupled with that of Mr. Hudson.