1.—15

18

[h. s. blackbuene.

12. It has been stated by one witness that the mean time which we have adopted in New Zealand is scarcely the mean time for the whole of New Zealand, more especially for the North Island ?—lt is a very good mean, I think. There is about a quarter of an hour's difference, 1 think. 13. If it were decided to make an alteration in what has been adopted as mean time of, say, half an hour or so, that would do away with the whole difficulty about the almanacs, I presume, because the almanacs show high tide and low tide according to mean time, do they not! — According to New Zealand mean time, yes. 14. If the mean time were altered, then the almanacs would have to be altered in conformity therewith ?—Oh, yes ! 15. That being done, the inconvenience that you spoke about would not arise?— Just so, if you made the alteration for the whole twelve months. If you alter the meridian, of course that means you are altering the mean time altogether. I think our mean time is a very fair average. It is 172° 30', and of course it is a little further off for places to the eastward than to the westward. 1 do not remember how many minutes, but it may be twenty minutes out, there. The only places far to the westward are down the Bluff way and almost uninhabited places— the West Coast Sounds. 16. Mr. G. U. Thomson.'] It is the case, is it not, that in our bar harbours high tide should be taken advantage of for the departure of vessels?— Certainly. 17. If two times were kept, I take it that harbourmasters might easily fall into an error there? —It is quite possible. The safeguards would be for the harbourmaster to keep his clock as it is. 18. A vessel might be timed to leave at, say, 12 o'clock local time, when all the while the harbourmaster has his own time, as it were, for the vessel to leave, and it might lead to confusion and, possibly, to accident? —I do not think there is much likelihood of accident, because the vessel would not leave unless the harbourmaster gave permission. With vessels coming in, the captain, of oourse, will have his own time. But, knowing what human nature is, I think there is almost bound to be some little inconvenience about the tides to start with. 11). It would introduce, at any rate, an element of danger—an element of confusion?— Certainly an element of confusion. A man might lose his tide if he had forgotten the difference between the two times. There would be that risk until things got into working-order. 20. Mr. Sifley.] You think that the inconvenience caused is only likely to be at the commencement '!— 1 should say so — for the first year or two. They would forget at first, but I suppose the matter would be talked about a good deal, and they would soon get used to it. 21. Mr. Fraser.] You said just now that there might bo danger of a man losing his tide. Alight there not be danger of a man losing his vessel? —I could not say positively that there would not, but I do not think there would be. 22. Mr. Sidey.] Has there been any expression of opinion at all on the part of captains about this proposal?—l have not spoken to them about it —hardly at all. 23. The Chairman.] Do you think there is any necessity for interfering with the clocks at all? Do you not think it would be better to start work an hour earlier and not interfere with the clocks? For years in the bush we have had our clocks kept an hour ahead and so started an hour earlier, but 1 have always thought it a silly thing to regulate the clocks instead of regulating the men. 1 do not see why they should not start at 7 o'clock instead of 8, without interfering with the clock?— Just so. Of course lam not concerned one way or the other. I have not thought much about the alteration. Personally I would prefer not to make it. 24. But could it be worked as well without interfering with the clock in any way —I mean if the various Departments started their work an hour earlier? —I fancy you would have more objection to that. Nautical Adviser's Office, Customhouse, Wellington, 27th November, 1909. Dear Sir, — Since reading over the evidence I gave before you on Thursday I examined the charts to see exactly what difference in time there is between the extreme cast and west points of the Dominion. According to the Admiralty charts East Cape is in longitude 178° 34J' E., and the extreme south-west corner of the Doininion is in longitude IGG° 27' E., making a difference of longitude respectively in each case of 6° 4J' and 6° 3', equal in time to 24 minutes 18 seconds and 24 minutes 12 seconds. We may therefore consider that the mean time is as evenly divided as it is possible to be in round numbers. Auckland is almost exactly in the same longitude as Wellington —viz., 9 minutes ahead of New Zealand mean time, but Cape Maria van Diemen is in longitude 172° 39' E., only about half a minute ahead of mean time. For the good of the Dominion, if a change is desirable for the matter of gaining more daylight for the majority of the people, I consider that far the best way would be to follow the suggestion of Mr. Adams —viz., to alter our meridian from 11 hours 30 minutes to 12 hours. No confusion or risk would be attended with this change, and it would mean a saving of daylight in the afternoon of 30 minutes all the year round, with, of course, a corresponding loss of daylight in the early morning. I back up Mr. Adams's suggestion very disinterestedly, as personally I should be very sorry for such a change, being an early riser, generally getting up at 5 a.m., and consequently 1 always look forward to the time when I can get up in daylight. I have, &c, Harold Sewaltjs Blackburne. The Chairman of the New Zealand Local Time Bill.