DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20338, 21 February 1928, Page 7

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin, —In Saturday’s issue of the Otago Daily Times your correspondent “ E. W. F.” makes a half-hearted effort to convince the farming community of the advantages of daylight saving. “ E. W. F.” has sot his pen going like a fiddler’s elbow, but, after all, he has failed to direct our attention to a single advantage we have gained. We have, after three months of this farcical Act, failed to see any “ definite gain in health and happiness.” If “E. W. F.” were out in tho country ho might change his tune. He states that ho has had an “ extensive experience of farming and farmers,” and further that the farmers are a greedy people. Well, Sir, he seems to know himself pretty well. “ E. W. F.” has probably seen by tho papers that the farmers from Auckland to the Bluff aro dissatisfied with daylight saving, and that petitions arc being prepared by the different farmers’ unions against a recurrence of this farce. I hope “ E. W. read the letter from “ A Farmer’ Wife. It is no joke setting out to milk a b*S herd of cows and then to get your milk poured down a drain. This is only one of many disadvantages that daylight saving has brought to the farmer. Any mother who cannot make her children go to sleep while the birds are singing on the housetops and the sun shining in the windows should send for “E. W. F.”: his tongue may be like bis pen. 1 am, etc.. February 18. Cockatoo. Sir,—After reading J. A. Bailey’s rather interesting, not to mention amusing, letter on daylight saving, I should like to know, without wishing to appear personal, whether Mr Bailey ever actually works on tho farm which 1 understand he owns m Central Otago. If so, he must be an exception to the general rule, because from my experience of farmers —and it is fairly extensive—most of them do work from daylight till dark, or almost so; and if the farmers themselves do not, at least their wives do. Being a woman, I have con siderable sympathy with tho farmer s wife who has to rise at a very early hour to prepare breakfast for the men, works all day long, and cannot retire at night before e'eanmg up after the men. and has in many cases to look after her children as well. It has been my experience that daylight saving makes her already hard life even harder. During the Christmas holidays I spent a short time in a well-known dairy ing district, and I found that during this summer a number of farmers have had to have lights in both the house and byre for quite an hour in tho morning. Yet JYr Sidey told u s the daylight saying would decrease tho use of artificial light, so, I wonder? Concerning the great benefit to tho health of the people, of which ■’C. of E.” wrote, I should merely » k ®. mention an incident which occurred while 1 was in Dunedin recently. I decided to spend an evening at a picture show with a party of friends, but we tried at lead, five theatres before we could obtain seats. I found on inquiry that this was the rule, rather than tho exception Ihe young people whom Mr Sidey fondly believes I bo taking advantage of the introduction of his all-absorbing fad and spending their long evenings in sport are instead tilling tho picture palaces. It was quite daylight at that hour, and in the cool of the evening. which is surely the right time for SP I lfc have heard many mothers of young children complain that, though the children have to rise at the usual hour to go to school they simply cannot and will not go to sleep until dark, and consequently they do not get nearly enough sleep. A= for Mr Bailey’s statement that ha . l “ v/ork never killed anybody, I most decidedly disagree, and am in a position to judge, having had recent experience in that matter. I should like to mention t things in connection with the letter by •• K W F.” in Saturday’s Daily limes. The" first is that his whole letter shows that he has had no personal experience, and therefore is not in a position to judge the matter in hand. Secondly, it “ F W F ” would become a farmer toi a short time ho would find that it was not greed but absolute necessity that makes the farmer work from daylight till dark. I am, etc., Common Sense. Sut —•< E. W. F.” gets a Pretty fair “spin” in your issue of the loth mst. with a letter which, while it requires a fair amount of daylight to read a PP eara mo to bo ridiculous. He stales that he has not personally benefited by the Summer Time Act, and if this statement is correct, then I feel compelled to congratulate him upon taking up the cudgels in an • argument which does not personally concern him To me Sir, it seems that the only persons benefited aro the old time golfer whoso eyesight may be a bit impaired, and who thinks of none other but himself Ido not suggest, however, that E. W. F. is one of this class. _ „ Would it be too much to ask it.. *>. JJ. to spend a couple of days on this dairy farm, where he will bo presented with a hurricane lamp in the early morning to seek the cows in a 20-acre paddock and, after doing a couple of hours milking, invited to hop into the “ old milk cart and do the rounds. —I am, etc.. Bull Dodger. Sib,—lt is no use to call upon those who are writhing under the wretched results of this unfortunate sham to explain themselves and say why. If wo are to have the whole Hansard wrangle of many years served up again in your columns, the Times* management had better cable for some more rolls of printing paper. If we who hate tho tiling, hate it, the sentiment is somehow founded and real, and only tho adherents of “ Christian Science ” which pronounces that you haven t got toothache when your cheek resembles a football—will hope to persuade us to like it. The tyranny of the cities over the poor no-acxount rustic is no new thing: and a citv politician with his special constituents to placate must generally fall into place as the instrument of that tyranny or endure the risks that all politicians most dread. Wo country sufferers can only hope that some such revulsion of feeling is overtaking the people and Parliament as has evidently come home to the Otago Daily Times itself, which began by violently denouncing all opposition to Sideyism as “ ignorant and foolish,’* and has ended in—the leading article of the other day. Hut for any sake do not let us hav© xiansard all over again.—l am, etc. An Ignorant Fool.