DAYLIGHT SAVING

Evening Star, Issue 16197, 19 August 1916, Page 2

DAYLIGHT SAVING

10W A NMIMAL GteER^iEW

KEFUSEB 10 .MET • A NATIONAL ISSUE.

\i?rom 'Hansard,' .August 3, 1916. \

Mi- Sidey (Dunedin South).—l cannot allow this Bill to.pass.without .some,comment on .what .took place in committee when I moved to ihsert'-the clause providing; for. the introduction ofXDavlight Saving during .the war. I think lion, members uill agree with me that I Have reason to feel somewhat strongly oh this question —not go much because-the clause was not inserted, but -because I know there is a substantial majority of.the House in favor of the clause, and also because of the means ..that were to defeat the will of the Hovse. -What has taken place m this case is a pood illustration of the fact that the 'National'-'Government are .simply, the Reform Government with a few Liberal members .included..' 6uffic : ent to.enable.the Reform Government .to. carrv any .measures, .they desire ..through the House. And the Prime Minister will TAT . .don me .for saying that lie has failed to realise that he is something more than the Leader of the Reform' party, -t sav that the tactics .employed in this case, as .Well as those,reed oh several other occasions during this session, have, been partv tactics pure and simple. Perhaps I ou<dit .to congratulate ihe -Prime Minister on hU adroitness, on .this occasion, .because he W very astutely "bagged" the whole of the Liberal Ministers. '

This proposal has keen consistently supported by sov.an.of.the Ministers, 'including the six Libaral Ministers. Thd whole of tue liberal Ministers- in the National Government have consistently supported llf's provision How. then, does it come about uhat the Prime Miniver has managed to .secure their support? Simply bv holdme over them .tie bogy of a possible stonevan— that the measure was noing to be stonewalled lor a -week, iut everyone knows that is a pure bony, and nothing more We had. an illustration of whaik the stonewall did last session on the Daylight Saving question. It fizzled out after a few hours. A stonewall this session, could not have .been nearly so successful r<ot only wero some of those away who stonewalled last session, but one member who took part in last year's stonewall told me. that he would not do more than place his pretest on record this year. It was a device to induce -the ■•whole of the Liberal members of the Cabinet to go over and do what was desired by the Prime Minister. Iho right honorable eentleman evidently thought that he had .then a. safe majority as it -made a difference of 14 votes as compared with last year—seven Ministers who voted with me last year votine against •me this .vcar. * " "

It was said that the clause was too contentious a subject to bring down at the close of the session. It is not mv fault that it comes on at the close of the sea sion. The opportunity was not given me to proceed with the -Bill that I brought <iown earlier in the session. I took the only opportunity I could get. But were not the licensing .clauses more contentious than this? Yet they wero brought down at the close of the 'session. Let me- tell the Government with retard to the licensing clauses that Ministers, apparently were led to believe that if a proposal to close at 6, 8, or even 9 o'clock were earned there would have -been a ctonewall, and notwithstandinp that there was no unanimity in the Ministry. Ministers were allowed to vote as thev* pleased. Mr Isitt: No. Some .did ; but that is not saying that thev were allowed. Mr Sidey: Well, they actually did, and it must bo assumed'"that thev were free to vote as they pleased. We must judge of the facts as we see them. Kven the threat of a. stonewall on the licensing clauses was not sufficient .to prevent mem°bers of the Cabinet from exercising their live and independent judgment. The Daylight .Saving clause had the support of a majority at the Cabinet table. It was brought forward by a member who had at all' times given the Liberal members of the Cabinet loyal and consistent support, and ho might reasonably havo expected them to exercise greater influence or consideration on his behalf' under such circumstances. That, then, was the first method taken to prevent the will of this House from being carried into effect on this proposal—the method I" have suggested under which the Liberal Ministers wero hoodwinked into going together against tho proposal. But notwithstanding that all the Ministers were induced to vote against this proposal, thev found themselves still without a majority of the House. They had not K ot a majority, and they must necessarily resort to all the party tactical measures in their endeavor to win a division in the .Hou.se. We all know what took place. There v,a-s no surprise to me in finding that the Prime Minister had secured a majority to-night to reject that clause. I knew that every member who could be persuaded to do so was urged to go ..r.t of tho House, and not vote on the measure if he would not vote-against it. Jt was common talk. Thei result was, therefore, no suqirise to me after I had seen bow tho National Cabinet was doing its level best to prevent the- will of the House from being given effect to. lam not blaming the members, but the matter yas in their hands. They had the opportunity of saying to the National Government': ''""ton are not our masters, but our servants,'.' and they could have secured this reform if they wished to do so. . Ijuve them the opportunity. If they >=Ke.'not taken advantage of that opportunity, that is a matter for them'. But I do ivant to thank those members of the House who stuck, to the clause and stuck to me in connection with it. I know the 'ss-s'iro thai was brought to bear upon them to e,.oer reverse their votes; or not to v(te at all. I am sure there are members on the other side of the llou:<6 just as Liberal as those on this side. Tho difficulty is that they cannot get away from those who are leading them. That is their trouble. There is nothing more dear to the heart of the Conservative than to •lwve anything like a decent excuse for doing nothing at all. I am afraid that that is the position in which the Government find themselves this session.

The war lias been an excuse for doing nothing at all in every possible direction. 'lt has not been so in "Australia. Can the Prime Minister give ns any reason at all why, after he gets all the "war legislation ho requires,, ye should not have other necessary legislation put through? I have never heard a satisfactory reply given to that question. The Prime Minister has followed the Old Country in his war legislation in every matter with the exception of Daylight Saving. • He has admitted that this scheme is (being' carried out in the Old Country to save coal. Does lie think that it would not have the same effect in this country f Is it not as necessary for us to save coal as it is for England? How dees it save coal in England? It does so because it saves one hour's consumption pLgas—it postpones the time for lighting up in the evening by one, hour. It is therefore on that basis "not so difficult a. matter to ascertain approximately what such a saving means in this country. There aro many families in which there would bo a. saving of more than 6d a week, and that is a considerable matter to some people, whether the Prime Minister thinks so or not. But that is a- small saving compared with what : .it would mean' to some industrial concerns.

It has been said that it is simply a guess to say that there would be a saving of £75,000 to this country. ' That ■ was

MR SIDEY SPEAKS SOME PLAIN JBBTIS.

; based upon an estimate made at Home, comparing our population with that of tie Old Country. Some time ago, with the assistance of an officer .of the Dunedin City Corporation, I worked out an estimate of what the saving in gas in the suburban districts of Dmiedih would be, and at showed that there would be from Bs to 10s per house for the five months. .On an estimate of 250,000 houses in the country there would be a, saving of something like £IOO,OOO, and the saving in some industrial concerns and in a department such as the railways would be at , eria! , j nd -eed. The saving of i/0,000 based on tho English estimate seems, .therefore, well within the mark. Well, sir, jvhen the Prime Minister "goes to England and finds how smoothly and satisfactorily this scheme has been working there during the summer.months, he .will Tiot be able to say that New Zealand has led .the way, but, on the contrary he will have to admit that he has himself been, the greatest stumbling-block in preventing New Zealand from being able to say that it led the way. There is another reason why Daylight giving would have . been extremely appropriate for New, Zealand to have been able to say it did so. It is this : that tie «al .ongmator of this proposal, or the first person to suggest it in its present form, even before Mr Willettin England was a resident of Wellington, employed in the Post and Telegraph Department, an amateur astronomer, Mr G' \ • Hudson who read a paper on the sub--11 ™ ,?- 95 ' a S ailf i' l 18g 8. before the Wellington Philosophical 'Society. That paper is published in the ' Transactions of the Now Zealand Institute,' and is to-day a valuable contribution to the subject, Mr Hudson proposed advancing tiie clock by two hours during about the_ same period of the year as is proposed in the reiected clause. It \va* therefore extremely appropriate that New Zealand should have led the way in tins matter, but instead of being the first it looks as if this .country will be the last. I am satisfied that"a'great many people will be exceedingly dfsappointed S 1 I Sal - and i IS not S° in ß t0 have the benefit during the coming summer of the many advantages-of the economic advantages particularly at this time—of the better utilisation of daylight durin* the slimmer months. I regret, especially in View of the increased Cost of Living tae wot. started, that even some little measure such as which goes in the dnection of economy, h RS been treated in the way it has been. It was perfectly -™>f £ tila Bill. It was a, war mel sure at Home and a. war measure 1« tw?i ] r? re auc! now m y regret that the National Government. have a£ain taken the course of doing nothing, and of denying the country the advantages of the Daylight Saving proposal.