THE DECIMAL SYSTEM

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 274, 4 November 1916, Page 4

THE DECIMAL SYSTEM

A cable message from Washington which appeared in the Australian dailies, but does not seem to have been sent to New Zealand, say’s that “the (American) Department of Commerce had learned that Britain was endeavouring to introduce a decimal coinage, and that members of the Chambers of Commerce had directed efforts to be made in Australia and Canada to secure support for the

proposal.'"' One of the most notable manifestations of the stubborn conservatism for which Britain has gained a rather unenviable reputation in these days of commercial progress and expansion is to be found in her failure to adopt a decimal system, not only of coinage, but of weights and measures also. It has nut been so much that any obstinate opposition has been shown to the suggestions in tins direction that 1 have been made from time to time, j as that those in authority have apparently been blind to the many obvious advantages which the system I offers, ft is now nearly seventy years since the first timid, tentative step was taken to thus syniplify; our financial dealings and calculations, for it was in 1849 that the Royal Mint began tlie coinage of the florin, which still continues to bear the impress ‘-‘one-tenth of a pound." Since then positively nothing has been done to carry the matter iurti (1 lit) nub 1 in an ru 1 t nciuhbiu nd 1) ' closest \hv hi had 1 c< m) letc u I v mumuit dici mal t tn m p cticil cj ci tn 11 for verv manv vears. Biitam has altogether failed to recognise its patent 111 1 Io tl joint of unit tion. There are tew ot us wno do mt ti’l iccoht <t the num < ndi ’1 nightmares that visited us while w<were endeavouring to commit to memory the whollv arbitrary and cm iphc 1 i 1 ib’t th it 0111 tf u 1 ei s writ coi ipi 11 d to <t 11 It 1 mi bv ) 11 1 ite llitv 111 hiv let! ui etui xticises 11 n<> dcn'opmint ol th'’ m le nicenmi< al memon winch, whne by no means iu be neglected, is on so much lower an intellectual plane than the inductive memory so w’ell cultivated by a proper course of mathematical study, even if elementary. But, even for this purpose, some much more attractive and utilitarian avenues of knowledge might readily be found. The learning of our “tables” has never been for our children anything but a “task,” and a most repellent one at that, and education of the young" should avoid as much as is possible the imposition of unproductive mental effort. If it were only on account of the time and fag that would be saved to us in our schooldays, when the acquisition of knowledge should be made as alluring as possible, the abolition of our complicated “tables,” which are hopelessly archaic and wholly without system, would be. fully justified. But, beyond that, they dog us all through* life, with the result that in every sphere of industrial, commercial and financial activity hours of precious time are wasted daily in wholly unnecessary, though sadly familiar, petty calculations. Tins phase of the question is still further accentuated when our dealings come to be with outside nations, and processes of conversion to their standards have to be undertaken. On turning to a reference book we find our national reproach .embodied in the sentence, “the metric system has been adopted by' the whole of Europe, except the United Kingdom and Russia.” It is quite time that this reproach was removed, and that we provided ourselves with a system that will, in this respect, place us abreast of the times, and assist materially in enabling us to wage successfully the commercial war which everybody is telling us will have to be undertaken as soon as the sword is sheathed.