DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20448, 30 June 1928, Page 8

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In support of Mr Masons letter allow me to point out that no law should ever be passed unless it is perfectly certain that there is a real necessity for it. Further, there is a still more important rule to be observed by those who undertake the vast responsibility of government, and one, as we saw' last session, very easily overlooked or brushed aside, notwithstanding that it is an unvarying, unalterable, and supremely important rule in the great game of law making. It is this: Unless there is some dire, insistent, crying need, legislation should never, in any circumstances whatever, be permitted in favour of any particular class. I defy Mr Sidey and all his minions to prove that his precious Summer Time Act was not class legislation. It was legislation against the farmer, and in favour of the “ playing ” class. No one need waste time trying to sidestep that palpable hit by talking about the hundreds of good folk who, without any aptitude or inclination whatever for games, yet fairly revel in the delightful extra evening hour in their gardens. Observation tells me that enthusiastic amateur gardeners are nearly always up with the lark and can be trusted to make good use of the early morning summer sun without any assistance from Mr Sidey or any other wellmeaning but misguided would-be reformer. -Was it, then, in any sense or in any degree necessary to pass, at great cost to the country, a special law, a law obviously provocative, giving rise to dissension, and setting class against class, for the purpose of fostering sport and for that purpose alone? Nay, more, w'as it wdse, W'aa it anything but mere careless, good-humoured indolence and thoughtlessness, in this already greatly over-legis-lated little country, whose youth are, regardless of expense, crazy for pleasure in all its multitudinous forms? Having got so far with perfect confidence in the soundness of my argument, let me introduce a gentleman of the name of Ruskin — John Ruskin no less! “The greatest efforts of the race have, always been traceable to the love of praise, as its greatest catastropbies to the love of pleasure.” And another, nearer home, Archbishop Averill. What. I wonder, in the light of current contoversy. is his opinion on the burning question of love of pleasure among New Zealanders? If it were put up to him, “Are New Zealanders generally, taking them by and large, sport-mad and amusement-drunk? ” think you his answer would be an unqualified negative? I doubt it! In fact. I know it would not be so. But, as “E. W. F.” and his like would no more accept the ruling of a distinguished cleric than that of a criminal Choctaw, I will ask leave to appoint, without leaving our native land, a yet more distinguished referee, an ex-Chief Justice of New Zealand, Sir Robert Stout, to wit! With the greatest respect and with a sincere hope that he will bo so good as to favour us with a reply to the above question, and with intensest interest as to the nature and form of that reply if (happily) it should be given, I suggest that we regard the matter as sub judice and leave it in his entirely capable hands. -—I am. etc., Ivors' A. Boktox.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —The letter on the subject of daylight saving by Mr W. D. Mason in a recent issue of your caper is characteristic in its disregard of accuracy. He charges you with “ abuse of the other side r ’ in your recent article on the above question, whereas, as you rightly point out, there was not a word in the article that could be so described. He also goes out of his way to refer to Mr Sidey, and in doing so displays the same reckless disregard for accuracy. He refers to “Mr Sidey’s frantic appeals to the medical fraternity to come to the rescue.” Mr Sidey is not at present m Dunedin, but I am in a position to know that he did nothing that could be termed a frantic appeal. His communication was addressed to the Medical Conference of last February, and simply asked whether the conference considered it had sufficient information to express an opinion on the subject. Again, Mr Mason refers to daylight saving as Mr Sidoy’s “ one and onb political bantling.” The inaccuracy ol these words will be realised when it is pointed out, instead of this measure being the only one provided by Mr Sidey, his name is associated with over half a dozim measures drafted and brought before the House by himself. The Dental School in Dunedin owes its existence to one ot these. Mr Sidey was a pioneer in his Bill providing for the first time in New Zealand for the application of the intermediate sentence to habitual criminals. Hie Bill to provide for compulsory education beyond the present school age was the first concrete proposal of the kind submitted to our Parliament. A number of- other measures bears Ins name, some of them being now on the Statute Book. Mr Mason does Mr Sidey a further in■justice when lie says that IMi* “plumes himself on the measure ; as it he had discovered a new planet.' Mr Sidey has never claimed to bo a pioneer in the matter. He has repeatedly in Ins public utterances given credit to others who have pioneered the daylight saving movement in New Zealand, and particularly to the late Mr Hudson and the late Mr Izard. . Until Mr Mason learns to have a greater regard for accuracy lot him be advised to leave newspaper correspondence alone, as statements such as those made in Ins recent effusion not only serve to discredit every assertion he makes, but arc calculated to mislead the public.—l am. etc., Fair Play. Dunedin, June 28.