The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1908. SAVING THE DAYLIGHT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13636, 2 July 1908, Page 4

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1908. SAVING THE DAYLIGHT.

An -apparently unobjectionable reform - has received a push along the road realisation by the favourable report *f .& Select Committee of the House of Com--noes upon the Daylight Saving Bill tioned in our cablegrams this mornings The idea, as the message explains, \is toput, the clock on an hour" in the summer months so that "people shall avail them-; selves of the extra daylight without thimt ing that they are depriving themselves of the pleasures of the blankets,- and "to keep the time even By turning; back .the an hour in the" winter,- Public opinidn has been educated upon this subject In England for some time past, but even those who saw imost clearly the . advantages of .-the proposed change/ could not have, been hopeful that it wonldireceive such strong parliamentary sanction at. so early a date-as has been the-ease: The English people, as one writer hi\a said, are conservative even in tueiryanomalies, and he feared that ih would be difficult to bestir them and make them so change their habits as to fit in their time of work and recreation better than they now do with the inevitable, movements of the sun. There are malty people, of course, like Lamb who loathe the principle of "getting up with the sun," and who, though necessity does not compel them to do so, prefer to spend the greater part-of their Waking hours . ..under artificial light, and to sleep when ihe sun is high in' the heavens: Others, again, are the unfortunate victims of a social system which- demands that some of its members shall turn their lives topsy-turvy in order that the majority shall be placed in the enjoyment* of certain ; , conveniences and luxuries which have come to be regarded 1 as necessities. We can write feelingly on this point, But for the most of mankind, the movements of the sim are a rough- guide to the mode of life of the human race. That is not to say, of course, that people were meant by Providence always lo wake and work when the sun is present, and, to sleep, when he is gone, for- if that were so, we should have more work to do in summer when the days are long and relaxing than -in winter when they are short but more ' conducive to hard work, while explorers like Lieutenant Shackleton's party who go to the polar circles where there is perpetual night for months would have to lead the mo»|; curious of existences. But still it is quite possible,-that people".should adapt their divisions of time so as to make more use of (he sun. Last year an enthusiast named Mr Willed! published a pamphlet in which he explained how this' could lie done. "For nearly half the year, Die sun shines upon the land, for several hours each day, while we are asleep, and ,'s rapidly Hearing the horizon, having already passed its western limit, when we reach home after the work of (lie day is over. Under the mcsl, favourable circnmsianceA there then remains only a. brief- spell of declining daylight in which lo wpend the short, period of leisure at our disposal. Now, if some-of the hours of wasted sunlight could be withdrawn from the beginning and added to the end of the day, how many advantages would be gained ~.y all, and particularly by those who spend in the open air, when light permits ..iem to do so, whatever time they have at their command, after the duties of tha day have been discharged. By a simple expedient these advantages can bo secured. We can, if we like, have eighty minute* more daylight, after 6 p.m. every itav during May, June, July and August, ami an average of forty-live minutes mow every day during April and September. Tim expedient which f venture to propose is that at 2 a.m. on each of four Sunday mornings in April, standard' shall advance twenty minute*; and on ,-aeh of four Sundays in September shall recede twenty minutes, or, in other words, that for eight, Sundays of twenty-four hours each, we shall substitute four," each twentv ininute.s less than twenty-four hours, anil four, each twenty minutes more than twenty-four hours. (Another means nf arriving at approximately the same end would be to alter the clock thiity minutes

- on six -Sundays, the last three in Apnl -.and- the first three m £ .totifahingas it may seen., ,*»;» ™ whole, cost or the scheme. We lose Nothing, and gaiu most substan haHy. Having made up onr minds -to he. «t»hed on four occasions wildi a Sunday twentythree hours and forty minutes long, or twentv-three honrs .and thirty minutes long-on: only three. occasions, the advantages aimed at follow automatically, without any-trouWe whatever;, everything "wilt go on just as ib does now, except that as- the later hours of the. day «row round 1 - they will bring/more light with tßemi •'lliose who have travelled by-sea east 'or'west will, remember how easily theY have acconrmbdaned themselves to the frequent alterations of time on board Ship."

This, author calculated that on an average -210 hours of daylight are wasted every;-, year by every peison, causing incidentally an immense and unnecessary outlay 1 upon artificial HgUL. The chief point, however, is ibak by. putting on the clock as \hesuggested, a man who knocked off work; at' 5 o'clock by the new time would hive/ as much daylight before him, for "creation and sport as- one who. now. leaves off;at-3.4G p.m., while those who ceased w_ork, at noon on Saturday -would be ,as as if they; now" stopped ijiil&4o;a;m-- The details of the scheme wbich:"has secured the supjtorb o£ the ■{■jelectr Committee differ from those of .Mr Wißeit,- but the object and the advantage ate* the : same..