CALENDAR REFORM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 182, 4 July 1931, Page 6

CALENDAR REFORM.

Considerable interest is being displayed in the international conference called by the Council of the League of Nations to discuss the question of simplifying the calendar. It will take place .in October next. The movement has been gaining ground steadily in recent years. The two leading objections to the present calendar are the unequal months, and the absence of a fixed date for Easter, upon which depend the dates for other holy days in the Church. It is interesting to note that Great Britain has an Act on its Statute Book providing for a fixed date for Easter when agreement is reached by the nations upon the reform of the calendar. This has been given support by industry, the railway companies and scholastic institutions. In some countries approval has been widely given to a method to divide the year into thirteen months of twenty-eight days, the odd day to be made a public holiday, Sunday being the first day of the month, and the extra day in leap year to be observed on June 29. The investigations of the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Astronomical Union a few years ago resulted in advocacy for reform, with, of course, a conference with religious authorities on the extent of the possible solutions. The League of Nations took the matter up and questionnaires were addressed to the various Governments, the result being the further submission to them of the various schemes expounded. A report which has been presented to the United States Secretary of State by its National Committee on Calendar Simplification reveals a marked increase in public interest in the thirteen months calendar. This report is supplementary to one prepared in 1929 in reply to the League’s request for information. It is stated that 140 large manufacturing, merchandising and other business concerns are using the thirteen month calendar, exceeding by more than half the number reported two years ago. More than one thousand organisations then gave evidence of their interest in the matter, but this figure has been further added to by influential bodies, one of which is the American Bar Association, supporting calendar reform. A preparatory committee has been meeting at Geneva to prepare the way for the international gathering, where the evidence gathered in each country on the various schemes will be analysed with a view to meeting the large body of opinion favouring reform.