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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16679, 28 February 1920, Page 2

A committee in Britain has recommended the adoption of the 24-hour clock on the ground that it will save a great deal of trouble by the removal of the necessity of using the customary additions of a.m. and p.tn. The hours of the day and night under the new arrangement would run 0 to 23,' 0 representing midnight. The change was first made during the war. when it was found far more convenient to say 15 o’clock on the telephone instead of 3 Pip Emma (the latter being the telephonic form of p.m.). Enthusiasts are anxious to introduce tho change into our ordinary life, pointing out how much railway time-tables and other works of the nature would be simplified.. This is, of course, true enough, and if we were starting our civilised life again no doubt we should agree that the new system was better than the one with which we are familiar. As’ things are the reform leaves us cold and it is difficult to raise any enthusiasm for it. We should all want new watches with a dial divided into 24 instead of 12 spaces, and this would raise the" cost of living by at least .05 per cent, per annum. Further it would be most irritating just as one was dropping into a comfortable sleep to hear the clock strike 23 times. Another problem is what would happen at midnight, when the clock would strike nought or zero hour. One imagines the correspondence that would take place in the papers on the subject when the change was being introduced. If the alteration from 4 p.m. to 16, and similar changes will make the trains go any faster or reduce the fares we will willingly accept it and boldly convert railway times into ordinary ones, but unless these or similar advantages are promised we shall still cling firmly to our old friends, Ack Emma and Pip Emma, for all the purposes of daily life.