THE UNIVERSAL DAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4970, 10 September 1918, Page 7

THE UNIVERSAL DAY.

ADVANTAGES QF THE SYSTEM

INTERESTING LECTURE BY ARCHDEACON WILLIAMS.

The idea of the universal day was advocated in a most interesting address on “Time and Time Measurement,” delivered by the Venerable Archdeacon AVilliams at a meeting of the Poverty Bay Institute held at the Library last night. Thp calendar of all civilised nations, said the reverend gentleman, is derived ultimately from that of the Romans.

“The advantage offered by the new meridian,’' said the lecturer, ‘is that most ordinary people would gain half an hour’s daylight a day. Of course we could all get that half hour and more any time if we had the strength of mind. But we are all such slaves to the clock. Custom, and the. Legislature, too. tie us down to particular hours. AVe rise, say, at 7 a.m. and retire at 11 p.m., and anyone who would perform these acts three hours earlier runs the risk of being looked upon as eccentric, if not actually disreputable. AVere it not for this slavery, a- far more drastic and important change in the matter of standard time would probably be introduced, viz., the adoption of the universal day. This proposal was actually seriously considered at the International Congress at Washington in 1884. when the meridian of Greenwich was suggested as the one time meridian. But before wo are ready to accept- this, we shall have to explode the notion of the sanctity of 8 or 9 o’clock as a breakfast hour. The only other radical change would ho the adoption of a single reckoning of the hours from 1 to 24, in place of the repented series 1 to 12. This latter feature in the scheme is what would make the greatest difference to us m New Zealand. Assuming that w.) shall have previously adopted our new meridian time, our afternoon reckoning up to midnight would remain as it is. But from midnight onward we should get into unaccustomed high numbers ; it would sound a little odd at first to talk of breakfasting at 20 o’clock. But we should not be so badly off in this respect as people in India whose daylight hours would embrace 12 to 24. However, wo should all soon get used to it. There are some practical advantages, too. To begin with, we would get rid of the necessity for adding a.m. or p.m. to our hours; and the statement of an hour would indicate the time, absolutely without any reference to the longitude of the place. Under the international scheme all standard times are referred to Greenwich, the time being faster than Greenwich as you travel eastward, and slower than Greenwich as you go westward, until the two systems meet on the 180th parallel of longitude. Tims we find that Fiji is llh. 56min, ahead of Greenwich, and the island of Futuna about the same | time behind; so that Futuna is j about 23J hours behind Fiji,although ! it enjoys the sunrise a quarter of an ] hour earlier. In order to keep the I reckoning correct, Monday’s sunrise' | in Futuna wakes up the Fijians, and j us in Now Zealand, to Tuesday. It j so happens that the 180th parallel is j traced almost entirely on tile ocean, i otherwise tho inconveniences arising j from this convention would he more 1 serious. The Act establishing the Australian Commonwealth provided j that it should spring into existence ! with the new century, but did not j specify when the century was to begin. Did the century begin in ; Fiji or in Futuna? AVithout going ] so far afield, did it begin in New i South AVales or in AVest Australia, j or was the birth of the Common- j wealtli a prolonged affair, dragged . out while tho midnight line was sweeping across the continent. The i universal day would remove all am- I biguity. AA 7 ith the universal day, j again, there would be no necessity j for that operation so mysterious to j the uninitiated, the inserting or dropping of a day on tho voyage to j or from Vancouver. The day and | the hour would be fixed for all the j world by the position of the meridian ! of Greenwich. To be quite fair there is one little matter which would ! affect us as much, as any country in j the world. The change of day would j everywhere take place when it was ! midnight at Greenwich. Twenty-four j o’clock would end tho day and usher j in a new one, and that hour would strike in daylight or dark according to the position of the locality on the globe—with us it would he not far j from noon. At present I do not see j any escape from this difficulty. But I all the same there is no denying the j fact that the circling of tho world by j cables docs bring the idea of a uni- ] versal day within the range of prac- j tical politics, and the presence of so many of our hoys on the _ battle fronts in Europe and Asia gives a sentimental force to what is scientifically desirable—the reference of all events to one definite time register.”