RECKONING OF TIME.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 20 (Supplement)

RECKONING OF TIME.

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY. As far back as 1919 a Home Office Committee presided over by Lord Stonehaven was appointed to report upon the advisability of adopting the 24-hour system of expressing time for official and other purposes. The committee, after an exhaustive inquiry, found no objection to the proposal and recommended unanimously its adoption by the Post Office and the railway companies. But in spite of the obvious advantage of the system, and of the fact that neither legislation nor any expenditure of public money is required, nothing whatever has been done, writes Mr. H. Spencer-Jones, the Astronomer Royal, in “The Times.” The question has been raised on various occasions in the House of Lords with inconclusive results, and will again i come up when a motion urging the adoption of the recommendations of the 1 Stonehaven Committee will be discussed. The 24-hour system of reckoning is used in the,Army, Navy, and Air Force. The reason for its use by these Departments is that it eliminates the possibility of error through confusion of a.m. and p.m., which might have serious consequences, particularly in time of war. It has been adopted 'in the Nautical Almanac, used by seamen, in meteorological warnings, and in other information issued by the Meteorological Office and is in general .use for scientific purposes. It is used by Post Offices and in railway time-tables of all Continental countries, and also in the most useful book of reference in this country. My predecessor, Sir Frank Dyson, has constantly advocated the change. The purpose of urging the adoption of the same system by the Post Office and in railway time-tables is to avoid ambiguity and the possibility of confusion of a.m. and p.m., which undoubtedly exists at present. It may be pointed out that the new system and the present system can be easily be used together without • inconvenience. No alteration of clocks is required, and it is not suggested that instead of “four o’clock tea” we should in future speak of "sixteen o’clock tea.”