VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 9

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS DAYLIGHT SAVING CONTROVERSY. COUNTRY WOMEN’S OPINION. (To the Editor). ” , '

Sir,—!‘Townie” having resurrected the vexed question of daylight saving in one of the most business-like letters which have appeared in your columns of late, I think that his aid, and that of his fellow workers, in opposing the latest (or any future extension) of, the period of daylight saving, should be not . only wel- Recorned but invited. “Towhie’ ? complained that the views-of the workers carry very 5 2 little weight to-day. This is unfortunately true. But surely the workers’ d, weight, added to that of the Farmers’ rf Union and the W.D.F.U., should achieve H something in the right direction. In spite of the strong opposition with which we met the introduction of daylight saving, we appear to be fighting a losing ; battle, and we need all the help we can enlist. •:=;

Mr. Coates’ little “compromise” caught * us napping, we must admit, but his action in introducing the half hour measure was undoubtedly remembered against him at the next general election. , If his measure had been left in its original form, however, hostility might in ; time have died down. It is these insidious little extensions, all pointing to i the ultimate return of a full hour’s daylight saving, that we must be on guard against. Consider its benefits! Could anything be more of a farce than the" principle of daylight saving applied to a summer like the one just past? Can its warmest enthusiast honestly say that his health has been improved by an extra .half hour’s dodging the raindrops each evening? Or, if he can still prove his case, I cannot see why the whole matter could not have been settled by the institution of an hour’s difference in summer and winter business hours, in which case the rest of the community could be left in peace. Most farming people are at home and hard at it after 3 or 3.30 p.m. in the summer, and the town people could not be greatly inconvenienced by' doing their shopping or other business a little earlier in the day. I may say that I have worked in both the country and the town while daylight saving in its various forms has been in operation, and have found the full hour an undoubted hardship, and the half hour an utter nuisance always. I have had mjr share of groping about in darkness on October and March mornings, even before the latest extension. The news that daylight saving ’-was to be abolished altogether would be welcome indeed to many. Instead of bickering and quarrelling among ourselves as to whether the farmer is developing curvature of the spine, or whether he is minus that important piece of framework, we should write and make our numbers count. You “Farmers, “Farm-hands,” “Townies,” all of you, please sink your minor differences and “get together” to prevent any further encroachment on our precious morning hours of daylight.—l am, etc., , “FARMER’S DAUGHTER.” Whangamomona, April 26.