The Christchurch Satr PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1934. FATHER TIME IN A NEW ERA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20483, 8 December 1934, Page 12

The Christchurch Satr PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1934. FATHER TIME IN A NEW ERA.

readers and radio Jisteners have been puzzled of late by the seemingly contradictory times of day that have been given to various occurrences in which aeroplanes have been concerned. The radio reports for the Centenary flight were manifestly had. Even the careful newspaper statements of the time at which Ulm was forced down at sea have been confusing to some. The fact is that the world has become aware of a new need, a universal time signal such as Greenwich Mean Time ought to supply, but does not yet supply quite conveniently. This stage in the world’s time-consciousness has arrived on the heels of a new invention, recalling the fact that it was the coming of the railways that created the demand for Standard time a good many generations back. In the days of stage coaches it did not matter much if the traveller in England found himself carried to places where the local time deviated from his watch, but train running, for the sake of safety alone, had to be regulated uniformly, and the companies adopted the practice of using the time of some central or important city on the line for all places not too far distant. Out of this practice arose the adoption of Greenwich time for the whole of England, and the subsequent regulation of time zones round the world on twenty-four standard meridians. We understand this perfectly in New Zealand, thanks to the radio, fop we find ourselves exactly an hour and a half ahead of Sydney by Standard time (or two hours by summer time, which Australia has not adopted). We know', too, that noon continually travels round the earth, making a circuit in twenty-four hours, and that the true noonday hour at any place is the moment when the sun passes the meridian, or highest point in its apparent journey across the heavens at that place. Convenience demands that the hours should have a relation to our daily routine of rest and w'akefulness. For local convenience, w’e start our day at midnight and name the hours of day and night as Greenwich does. But where nothing' is necessary except the designation of some moment of absolute time, irrespective of our daily routine of life, then only a single measure for the w'hole world is necessary. ADJUSTMENT NEEDED. BY THAT SINGLE measure of time the scientific and radio world is working to-day. Just as the radio world has adopted English as the standard language for call signs and international communications, so it has adopted Greenwich Mean Time for regulating its activities. But the hours are called from one to twenty-four, and one o’clock goes out as “ nought one nought nought” (01.00), and this method of call applies to the p.m. hours like 13.09 or 23.55. The unavoidable inconvenience associated with the system is the uncertainty in many cases whether local or Greenwich time is understood. It is conceivable, in fact, that for international use the Greenwich hours might be translated into twenty-four letters running from A to X for the avoidance of uncertainty, and if that is not done some other means of indicating Greenwich time may become general, both in receiving and transmitting at places outside England. RADIO LICENSE FEES. THE REDUCTION in the radio license fee is long overdue, and although four months seems a long time to wait," the Minister is right in announcing it at once. But even 25s is generous payment for the service New Zealand enjoys, and as listeners increase the Government would be well advised to continue the reduction. New' Zealand stands high in respect to telephones and motor-cars per head of population, and might set a world’s record with radios if the fees w'ere reasonable.