Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1924. DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1074, 22 July 1924, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1924. DAYLIGHT SAVING.

The arguments used by the deputation which waited upon the Prime Minster on Thursday in support of Mr T. K. Sidey’s Summer Time Bill were, lor the most part, the old stock arguments that have been used in support of socalled •’daylight saving” from the initiation of the agitation in that direction. The member for Dunedin South has himself worn those arguments almost threadbare. The proposal is to put forward the hands ol the clock

‘•one hour at two o’clock, New Zealand standard time, in the morning of the first Sunday in October,” and to revert again to standard time (which Mr Sidov’s Bill explains is “exactly eleven ami a half hours in advance of Greenwich mean time”) “at two o’clock in the morning of the first Sunday in March.” The need for the change is far from obvious. Thursday’s deputation. by point of numbers more than bv weight of argument, endeavoured to impress upon Mr Massey the desiiabilitv lor making the change, but failed' to take into account the dislocation and inconvenience which must inevitably follow a change in the system of computing time such as they advocated. So far as business men, traders, mechanics and other classes of workers are concerned it is an easy enough matter, except in the case of the farming community, for an arrangement to be come to, fixing the hours of work for summer and winter time without disturbing tlm hands of the clock or departing from the existing method of calculating the time by the sun. It is done in a good many cases at present, and bv mutual agreement employers and employees are ill a position to arrange their working hours to suit such artificial amendments of standard time as they may desire without inconveniencing the other, sections of the public who tail to see the necessity for declaring that the sun has reached the meridian at eleven o’clock in the mornin,r during the summer months when it stiTl lacks’ the hour off noon. There might be less objection to the proposal were it confined to making standard time just twelve hours ahead of Greenwich mean time, and that appears to be as far as Mr Massey is likely to carry the proposal to depart from the existing method of computing time in this country. In Australia and Canada, Mr Massey reminded his Thursday deputntionist.s, “daylight saving” has been tried and abandoned, although in certain Canadian cities it is still being partially observed to the confusion of visitors and the travelling public. Very few farmers, if any, favour any departure from standard time, although the deputation managed to secure a retired farmer as one ol its speakers, hut that gentleman appeared to bo more interested in bowls than in farm work, and it was noticeable that the housewives were unrepresented, the deputationists consisting for the most part of representatives of sporting bodies—cricket, athletic, rowing, swimming, golf and bowling clubs and associations, etc., with a sprinkling of shopkeepers and representatives of Borough Councils, Chambers of Commerce, etc

WOMJSN JUSTICES,

Tlio first private Member’s Bill to pass the House of Representatives this session—the Hon. T. M. Wilford’s .Justice of the Peace Amendment Bill—makes its appearance for the third time. Jt will, if it succeeds in running the gauntlet of the Legislative Council —which appears doubtful—open the way for the appointment of women Justices to the Magisterial bench. The need for such appointments is by no means generally recognised, although in certain directions a good deal can be said and urged in its favour, especially in view of the fact that, now-a-days, women are entering practically every calling and profession on an equality witli members of the so-called sterner sex. if it is right that women should be permitted to practise in the Courts, and they are regarded as competent to do so, it may lie argued chat no exception should be taken to their adjudicating upon cases coining before such Courts. But, in the former case, years of study and preparation are necessary, and it must be shown that a woman claiming the light to practise law possesses the necessary cjimlifications which fit her for the career she desires to enter upon, before she is admitted to practise. Women so practising are at liberty to choose their own cases, and the qualifications required of women legal practitioners are not, of course, required of Justices of the Peace, although they are supposed to have at least an elementary knowledge of the principles of law, and to be acquainted with such powers as they are invested with by virtue of tlmir appointment as Justices. But the average woman has neither the time, nor the inclination, to lie bothered with such matters as come before a Justice of the Peace, and certainly would not care to have to sit on the bench to assist in trying the unsavoury cases which come before the Courts from time to time. Women who would undertake to qualify themselves in such directions and who would willingly accept positions on the bench, are decidedly the exception. There is, however. a special branch of Police Court work in wlii.Ji women might engagi—

that is in dealing with juvenile cflenders. In the Juvenile Courts their influence might he of advantage, hut, to ensure the Imst results, women exorcising magisterial powers should possess mature judgment and have some special qualifications for the duties required of them. Cor that reason it is to be regretted that greater consideration was not given, when the Bill was in Committee, to Mr Lyxnnr's amendment, imposing an age qualification in connection with such appointments as Mr Wilford’-s measure contemplates. In his remarks upon the third reading of the Bill, the member for Hutt intimated that he hoped to see Women’s Courts established in each of the four centres as a corollary to the measure itself, and spoke of the success which lias followed the appointment of the ‘ City Mothers” in Los Angeles. The Government might with advantage enquire into the working of these courts, and the circumstances leading to their establishment, as also the reason for the / appointment of the “City Mothers” who apparently exercise similar functions to those of women police court visitors who attend the civic courts in this country, mainly from tho "Salvation Army.