STANDARD TIME.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16143, 22 February 1918, Page 3

STANDARD TIME.

| pitting ox the clock. APPROVED BY CIVIL engineers. •So mo I'.ttio time ago the of altering the standard time for New Zealand received some attention ai tho hands of the Wellington Philosophical Soacty. This was brought under the notice of members of the Now Zealand Society of Civil Engineers, and mention was made of it at Tuesday's conference of tho latter organisation. Mr R. W. Holmes (Ecgincer-in-Chwf to the Public Works Department), in tho course of his remarks on the subs ject, said the question was one which from many points of view vitally affected tho interests ot engineers. What Dr. Adams, the Government Astronomer, proposed was the adoption of tho meridian of Greenwich as Mew Zealand mean time. The Astronomer could gradually advance the time, so that no one woutd notice it—say, a minute a week, and inside a year the object would be achieved without anybody being any the wiser. To advocate tho advancing of the clock for one hour during a ertain season, and putting it back again, might bo too violent a change. Why should not, he asked, 12 o Ciock or noon be mado the middle of a man's daily operations? Whv should a man not commoner his work at 7.30 a.m., work till' 11.30 a.m., and then again from 12.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.? Let them have the noonday hour, and divide the day into two equal parts. Mr Evan_ Parry, Chief GovernmentElectrical Engineer, agreed that a real advantage would he gained by advancing the clock half an hour. lie referred to tho various phases of lighting and power, and claimed that from an industrial and economic point of view benefit would be reaped by the ; proposed alteration in the time. Mr W. H. Morton, Wellington City Engineer, referred to the comparatively recent threatened shortage of coal, and tho request to tho city corporation to economise ns much as possible in that commodity. After very careful consideration, ho had comc to the conclusion that, apart altogother from doing away with extravagant lighting, tho only way the request could be complied with was by reducing 'tho peak of tho load in both the tramway and lighting departments. Between the hoars of 5 p.m. and G p.m. both these stations with tho existing machinery wore loaded to tho fullest extent. People had been asked to close their offices earlier thon, hut'there had only , been a half-heartod response: not suffi- . cien't to give any clear indication of tho possibility of solving the question jin that way. At that timo they were not able to do with a lesser number jof tramcars, but the experiment gave an indication that less power wa<? required. The saving from less lighting was not problematical. but in regard to tho tramways it was a matter for consideration whether some people getting away from work "arlier might rot delay their homeward journey. He thought that such would be tho case, and held that, in view of the great economy which would bo effected, conference should give, all the support it could to the proposal to alter the standard time. Mr Stavelev (Wanganuil held that the proposal would save £1-50,000 per year in lighting alone. Mr Mo'-ton drew attention to tho fact that Brisbane. Sydney. Melbourne, and Hebart had all had different times, but had been brought into lin-> with no evil effect npon auyone. "They just got up a bit earlier, and did not know it." , Mr H. F. Tcvood reminded conference that opnosition, hs of old. would eomo from the agricultural section of 'Mi" community. Mr L. Birks said they should keep in view that they were not asking any new thing. What they were asking was nor in the interests of the engineers alone: i ! was really the proposal of the snortsmen. It was no new innovation they sought, every isolated sawmilling and bnsh camra had adonted it as a matter of public convenience. Eventually conference nnssed a motion affirming !:he desirability of having New Zealand mean time twelve hours allerd of Greenwich mean time instead of llhr 30min, as at nresent.