DAYLIGHT SAYING BILL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 July 1924, Page 7

DAYLIGHT SAYING BILL

I am, etc., F. G. GIBBS.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—-According to the latest news, Mr Sidey's Summer Time Bill is not meeting with any great measure of success. To anyone who believes that by putting back the clock one hour during the summer season, New Zealand"* beautiful summer time, the news is a very sore disappointment. But the greater evil is the existing fact that the Bill does not appear to be taken seriously.by the- Members of the House. Yet the Daylight Saving Bill is one of the most important Bills before the House to-day- Most people too have not given the proposed measure enough serious thought. Looking on the surface, the putting back of the clock one hour during the summer strikes us as an almost impossibility full of all kinds of complications, when if looked into are mostly imaginary. It would bo both interesting and instructive to hear the view of different workers on this important question, for wo must admit (if the Bill became law) that it would effect us according to various occupations. Take the farmer, dairy farmer, tradesman, business man, clerk, shop assistant, etc. It is well to mention workers particularly, because they are the people who the lull would mostly affect. 'The retired individual can almost suit his actions to the. time. "Ho toils not, neither does he spin." but to enjoy the blessing of our hours longer daylight' in the summer evenings would be worth untold wealth and health to the average worker. If we take a census of the population of New Zealand we find the vast majority of its inhabitants are town dwellers. The greater part of which arrive at their different occupations at 8 a.m. The next on the list is 8.30 a.m. and 9 a.m., which is also the school hour. Most of these workers spend the best part of the sum!mer day in bed. Take a glorious i summer morning: Light at 4 a.m. unbearably hot at 12; dark on the longest day about 8 p.m. Most workers finish the day's toil at b p.m. They enjzoy at the most only three, hours daylight. True some rise early in the summer. The young rush : off to the sport they are fond of, but oh ! what a rush. The family man gets into his garden and just as he's getting I used 'to it has to rush off to work- look- ! ing and feeling as it he had already done a day's toil, which is neither good I for him nor his employer. Think of the calm joys of another hour's day- ' light at evening when you could have f-yonr sport or attend to your hobbies ; "with no-rush and then a. good night's rest. How nico for the housewife to have the midday meal ready in the hot summer time one hour earlier, and of i the. family who during .most-of our hot : r\tshing midday summer meals don't ! want this and don't like that, etc. | Look at the we^k-'ends' we would ! enjoy if the clock was put back one hour. The wbrksi* on the laud is difi feretitly situated, but how much so?

The hours of labour are now controlled by the labour laws, and you find if you employ labour on a, farm, men do not commence work until 8 a.m. in agricultural farms, orchards, etc. The dairy fanner and the milk seller would certainly have to alter his plans if the dock was pul hack. But again, how much? Their customers would be ready in the morning for the milk. They would not have to wake so many up. ’ The dairy farmer has to deliver his milk the same hours in the winter as the summer. He would finish his rounds one hour earlier and naturally get the same benefit out of the longer working light than the town dweller. The greatest problem is the shipping, but that has been managed successfully in other countries where the Daylight Saving Bill is in force. The only country which has turned the Bill down is Australia, a country which is divided against itself with antagonism-. \iew on most matters. Let not antagonist means the daylight measure kill. Conic, reason, think it out, a longer day enjoy ; the longer summer’s day a Jong felt‘ want will fill, for old and young, \es, man woman, girl and boy. There is no country in the world that would benefit, so much by the Daylight Saving Bill as New Zealand, because of its early morning daybreaks and the short evenings—l am, etc., SUNLIGHT.