6

[W.»H. ATACK.

1.—15.

35 Then it is the general public that would be the chief sufferers, because they would be twelve hours behind in their information?—A certain proportion of the news would undoubtedly be twelve hours late every day in publication. , . 36 And that would be obviated, I understood you to say, if Australia were to join with us in passing a similar measure?— Yes, we should be exactly as we are now. 37. But until that happened we should be at a disadvantage?— Yes. We should be 2 hours 35 minutes behind, instead of 1 hour 35 minutes. 38 Mr Stt&W.l Have you considered the matter of private individuals cabling between ner< and Australia during business hoursj—l have not; but, of course it would affect them very materially, I should say, when there was some urgent business toward. It might make a serious difference to business men. . . , 39 The Chairman."] In the case of a cable sent from here to Australia and requiring a reply, would it not prevent that reply from being received during the same day, probably I—l hat would entirely depend upon the hour at which the message was sent originally 40 It would leave them one hour less to reply in?— Yes, and might make it impossible for them to reply in time. Supposing that a man telegraphed from Sydney at 12 o clock in the day about something that had to be done before 2 o'clock Sydney time, he could not get an answer. [ had not considered that matter, but, of course, it must affect private persons to some extent where urgency is in question. Geobgk Vbrnon Hudson, Civil Servant, Wellington, examined. (No. 2.) The Chairman: Will you make a statement, Mr. Hudson? _ Witness ■ I should like to make a few remarks. Perhaps the first thing I should do is to allude to some of the objections that Mr. Atack has raised.- With all due respect to the newspapers, it seems to me that the Press is a very small part of the community, taking all the people into consideration. This scheme of putting the clock on an hour m summer is intended to benent the ■ neat mass of the community. Mr. G. M. Thomson, in .peak ng on the Bill, asked why not aUei the habits of the people instead of altering the clock? This is a more reasonable objection. The pi" is that alteration in habits would be wholly impracticable, as t would involve endless adjustment throughout the whole of society, which could never be oa ™ ed ° U 1l *?*£ \ Meal times arrivals and departures of trams, steamers, Ac, opening of places of business, i 'ire &c. would all have to be simultaneously altered, whereas by moving the hands of the Sol in the middle of the night, all these adjustments could be effected quite automatically, , ; would be no confusion. In our office we ware very kindly allowed by the Government to come ( l,,wn at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning and leave at noon The concession was very ™* appreciated but at the same time its benefit is only very limited, because the man cannot get then meal times and their trains and boats altered to suit the change, so that even in a very small office r e alteration of habits is not feasible. The alteration of the clock moves the whole of the prooeedgs ot he day ,:ne hour ahead, and enables people to get the daylight at th u end of the day instead of at the boinning, when they cannot make use of it. If they do want to make use of it in the morninKsVhey have to get up very early, and become too tired to do their work later on m the IT Again visitors often arrive in the evening and prevent early risers from going to bed, and th s they cannot get their proper rest. By altering the clock the whole community gets one hour's extradayS at the end of the day for any purpose required. The whole community gets the benefit and done quite automatically. Then, another objection has been urged-as to the Swim in the clock tending to lengthen the hours of labour. That is already dealt with by Ci It would be just as reasonable to say that because of the of Greenwich is our time for all New Zealand. In reality it is not the tune for the East Cape I , , st vn bit,,nlv for a point in the Lyttelton tunnel. So nearly everybody in New Zealand U StaSShtauS even to the extent of thirty minutes in some places. The argument as to our Sailed interference with the heavenly bodies, and deluding ourse yes, >s altogether tallacious There is • certain section of the community that is emphatically against the proposal, and that is t tit"' anies. It would be dead "loss to them. The money taken out o their pockets by he sfvine ofTrtificial light will, however, go into the pockets of the community at large lhe h-n HI \h be vc.-v hard on the milkman, because he will have to get up in the dark con'tl.l longe in the year than he does at present. It will be of immense benefit to the schoolchildren 1v it they would have an extra, hour's play in daylight All the clerks in offices, factory Sγ Aod people 'servant-girls, &c., will get the extra hour's daylight for recreation all through fee summer amf or most of the time they would have any amount of spare daylight in the morning a weH Whe the mornings draw in in the autumn the present time would be reverted to. The