LEAP YEARS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2033, 10 January 1889, Page 3

LEAP YEARS

Tho following explanation is given whj the your 1900 will not b j counted amnnj. leap years. The year is 365 days 5 h juri and 49 m'nutes lo "g ; 11 minutes an takea every year to make the your 366J days long, and every fourth year we have an extra d»y. Thi« was Julius Caotar'i arrangement. Whero do those ekvec minutes come from 1 They come from tbc future, and are paid by omitting leap ye*r every hundred years. Bat If leap year is omitted regularly every hundredth year, In the course of four huadrecl yeara it is found that the eleven minutes taken each year will sob only have been p«id back, but that » whole day will have been given op. So Pipe Gregory XIII , who improved on Cso'ar'a oalendar In 1582, decreed that every oenturial year dlvisable by four should be a leap year ef tor all. We therefore borrow eleven minutes eaoh year, more than paying our borrowings back by omitting three leap years m three centurlal years, and equare matters by having a leap year In the fourth oecturlal ye«r. Pope Gregory's arrangement is so exact, and the borrowing and paying back balance so closely, that we borrow more than we pay back to the extent of only one day In 3866 yean