SUMMER TIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUMMER TIME.

ALTERING THE CLOCK.

BY JIATANGA.

So summer time, as a gift of Parliament, which is not quite tho same thing as a gift of God, comes again. From tho second Sunday morning in October until tho third Sunday in March, tho clock will ho set half-an-hour ahead: "the clock," mark you, not necessarily your clock, for this is a freo country, and you may do what you like, within limits, with what is legally your own. You can stop, start, adjust, pawn, sell, give away, tinker with or smash that clock of yours without let or hindrance, if it bo really yours. You can laugh at it as a silly contrivance of convention, rail against it as a symbol of wage-slavery, scorn it as a petty interference with your personal freedom, if you like; you can, as a proud possessor of that vaunted franchise, quaintly called tho liberty of tho subject, dotermino to do without a timepiece of any sort, and do all just when tho mood moves you—eat, drink (except in certain public places of refreshment), work, play, sleep and tak« your walks abroad. But, being sensible, you will havo a caro not to carry this freedom so far.

Even if you bo an astronomer, heedful of the time-keeping dial of the sky, or a mariner, with a chronometer "sot regard less largely of what poor land folk do, or any other of tho scientific elite, you will accept the workaday arrangement of ordinary people when you come to earth In Home, you will see tho wisdom of doing as Homo does, whatever your penchant for treading the heights of tho hills with which common life, is aloofly girt. You will find it. convenient to do so. After all, tho observing of set houis is no more—and no less—than a convenience, and you will act accordingly, save where some extraordinary necessity dictates an individual course.

Parliament produced four stalwarts prepared to resist to tho last ditch any legal enactment of summer time. Whether for this obduracy they merit immortality is a matter of opinion. Despite their protest, the clock will now bo regularly altered, year by year, at the coming of tho prescribed days, until, by statute, nilother order be brought ill. Thus far summer time has come to stay. William Willetts. Wo follow, in this thing, the lead of many others, our Homeland relatives among them. In England summer time has just ended, the clock having been put back an hour until winter time cornea again." How that land, by no means prone to welcomo innovations, was long ago led to adopt this measure of daylight saving,-is worth recall. The idea came in 1907 to one William Willetts, a sage of Chelsea,- whose livelihood was earned as a builder. An observant man, this Willetts. He noted that civilisation had got into tho habit of rising an hour or so too late in summer, and so had a short evening for outdoor enjoyment, when it might have a long one. So he started a campaign for putting tho clock on for the spring and summer months. Excellent fellow, he didn't form a society of anv sort to arouse public attention and interest, but did the. job himself, at his own expense. He succeeded so well that Parliament took tho matter up, and in tho next year a Bill got as far as reference to a select committee His idea was to advance the clock- 80_ minutes by four separate moves of 20 minutes: tho select committee preferred one move of an hour. Favourable report, however, was not enough. The tendency in Britain is against hurried change, and action was delayed. From an entirely unexpected direction came help for the summer time cause. A committee appointed to consider fuel eco nomy took its allotted task very seriously, examining all phases of the question. In due time it reported, and among its urgent recommendations was one advising the adoption of summer time. The Act passed in May of 1916, and coming into operation within a few days of its passage, was the outcome of tnat advice. It has continued in force, with only minor modification, ever since. So an hour's summer time has become the rule there.

Some Arguments. A good deal of opposition was offered to tho proposal. Most of it canio from farmers, who said that milkers would have to get up an hour earlier to do their work and made much of tho objection that I'ay and corn harvests would have to wait until the dew disappeared before tho warmth of a sun coming to business an hour late according to the clock. Perhaps the choicest protest was that uttered in the House of Lords during the debate there. It was produced by Lord Balfour of Burleigh, who styled the measure "the most absurd and ridiculous Bill that has ever been presented to the House." That was more hysterical than historical. But what of this passage in his speech, as authoritatively reported? "I do not propose, ho said, " to give the Bill strenuous opposition, as it is but a temporary measure for the duration of the war. But if any attempt is made after tho war to make it a permanent institution, it will have to receive the most critical attention. And he proceeded to give a sample of what ho believed to be critical attention. tie asked their lordships to carry their minds to tho night in October when the clock was to be set back again. At one 0 clock the clock would be put back to midnight. (This it may bo explained, was the method in tho first Act). Supposing that of twins, bo said, one child was born ten minutes before one o'clock; then, if the clock was put back, the registration of the time of birth of the two children would be reversed; the second child would be born fifty minutes before tho other. Such an alteration might conceivably affect the property and titles of that House! A Conundrum. Like most conundrums, it proved easy when the simple answer was known. Perhaps the exquisite plea, aimed particularly at the susceptibilities of that House, was too finely pointed to penetrate. Whatever the reason, his lordship failed to check the progress of tho Bill: evidently fuel economy was, even in that House, of moro vital importance than entries on birth registrations. The change camo to stay. It was periodically authorised until, in 1925, it was made permanent. Many countries of Europo took that same road in 1916; in fact, tho second year of the war saw nearly every ono of them 011 it. A full hour the clock was advanced during the lato spring, the summer and tho early autumn months. Tho motive was economic. Summer time was observed to save fuol used in lighting and heating, by getting people to bed an hour earlier and out of bed and at work an hour earlier. It was thus, in r» real sense, a measure achieving daylight saving, although the term has been criticised as inapplicable. There has been a varied experience in tho United States, Congress adopting the idea in 1917. and two years later repealing it, over th<- President's veto, to make way for freedom of local choice in the matter. Since then tho various States and local authorities liavo had summer time, or done without it, as they pleased The clock, then, is a social convenience. It is a symbol of civi'isation. Men have been constrained to devise U in its various forms as a help to keeping the affairs of earth running smoothly. Sometimes it gets in the way, and adjustment of it is necessary to the achievament of this very purpose. That is what summertime really means, by v whatever namo it may called, in praise or contempt.