DAYLIGHT SAVING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20823, 16 March 1931, Page 12

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Sir.—Could not- daylight saving hours be observed all the year round? There are several good arguments in favour of it which I will endeavour briefly to set out. First, the alteration results in everybody having to use artificial lighting one half-hour longer than they do at present. For the average household the hours of use of lighting will be increased by üboiil, 20 per cent, and their cost of lighting by about the same amount.. Also it will result in increased lighting for shops, etc., but it is more difficult to arrive at the approximate extra amount because of the great difference in the requirements of the various businesses. The .slogan of the day is to decrease costs, and this seems a direction in whfch everyone can make some reduction in household costs. The actual saving would only amount to, say, two shillings a month, but- at a time like this every little helps. From the supply authorities' point of view it. would reduce to a considerable extent the number of complaints which pour in every year due to the sudden increase of consumers' lighting accounts when the chajnge to standard time is made. The late chief electrical engineer, Mr. L. Birks, was in favour of adjustment of one half-hour being made permanent. Among other reasons he pointed out that it resulted in New Zealand being always 12 hours ahead of Greenwich time, a fact which simplified the timing of cables, etc., and it helped also to split the peak load during the winter mftnths. John Citizen. March 13, 1931.