DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 767, 16 March 1910, Page 5

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE BEFORE LABOUR BILLS COMMITTEE.

' VAEIOUS POINTS OF VIEW. As -it .is possible that the, Government will bring down legislation next Bessicm in furtherance of the daylightBaying proposal, ; the evidence .taken on the N^w-Zealand-Local -Time Bill before, the Labour Bills Committee, which ha 6 now been printed, mcies,interesting reading. It will be seen that the committee examined..' mtnesses representing the Marine Department, Education Department, Labour Department, New Zealand Employers' Federation,' New. Zealand Press Association,. Civil Service tion, New Zealand'athletic - bodies, merchants, also severalmembers of .the Wellington Philosophical Institute. The committee reported th.it the weight of evidence submitted was in favour of the Bill, but ss they recognised that it was then not possible for the Bill to. be passed 'into law last session, recommended the Government to take the matter into wmacferation : during' the recess. It ehould also be mentioned that the committee was of opinion that'an endeavour ghicwld be ; made ?to' secure i&e cooperation 'of ; the' Commonwealth Government.

.Views of the Press Association Manager. 1 Mr.' At&ck, manager' of' the New ; Zealand Press Association, said that New Zealand was already one - hour 1 , and thirty-five- minute ahead -of. Australia. The extension - of one , hour ■ would._prervent New; Zealand papers from ■obtaining certain-.-news,.' especially ' on ' Saturday nights; which the public expeoted, 6uch as : the' results of athletic and 'othar! events. The'\ difficulty as far as news oil Saturday evening 'was; concerned" oould be got over 1 if the Government would; agree to keep the" telegraph offioea open aiter 8 o'clock. Then the Effect of the change would bo- felt to a grcai exteirt -by. the morning newspapers. laapder to obtain the fufi cable, news it had been neoeKsaiy to make a 'special, ■arrangement with - the Government to open the telegraph offices aiter midnight in order, that the' morning' papers might ,get the messages. -. If the Bill were passed into law tlie Government should bei asked; to earnestly ,'press ; tofollow .frtiit.;; Replying; to a! question, Mr. A tack said that it was his private oauiion that .if -'Australia came into'line the proposal *ould be a very gOod thing. 1 llr. G. V. Hudson, civil servant, Wellington, said it seemed to him that- the i press was- a- very small part of the' community, taking ,all . the people into con- . eideration. The, scheme ''f ' putting the rtiock on-an hour in summer was intended ! to • benefit the great mass of the' community. To alter the habits of the people instead of altering the clock would ■ be wholly impracticable,' as it would involve endless adjustment throughout the' whole ■of-' society, which ciuld never'be carried out in all its detaiL By altering the clock the whole community would fcet.ons hour's extra- daylight at the /end of the day for any -purpose required The altering of the clock would not affect the tones of labour. In regard to the argument that ;th)B people, would be ('eluding themselves, ho would point out that wo use mean time,' not. solar time, end tho eigumeot was therefore fallacious. He •gas perfectly satisfied that if the schome were once tried, it would ■ never be roTCrsed. ;; ■'< -;' .."We Should Adopt-the Ways of Our : Forefathers." _Mr.'Bd-vard Tregeajyteretary for Labour, .refflarlttd that he wished-to on tae. subject almost purely from , the lndustrail 'paint;. H6 fc-unl .there fuva so many l enactments in t different statutes which dealt with the hours that unless tie clock ; were put on by ' Government direction -there would .be a very great deal of confusion, and:it .would he almost . f, n lm.possibility to. continue... Thus, ■in the, Factories Act,;tie'men's honi-s "Svoro not limited, -as to when they shall begin and end, because most of jthose .times were arranged /or . by. awards' of the Arbitratioa Court; but the women working ui factories—and there were -many' hundreds—must, not work later than 6 in the evening, or begin work before 8 in the morning, .except; during certain months, inspector could give them permits to rommence at 7. In certain factones—tho' Kaiapi-i; factory and : one' or two others—he believed they did take , advantage of that during the summer, and begin work at 7, but as a geicral rule •w£!?J^S n "- at ' 8 - In the federated noot trade, the agreement fixed the-hours w.ir^f 611 7 - 30 a - m - ; and 530 p.in. Tho ;and. ' ioinerfl worked from 8 a.m.- to 5 pjn.-during May, AugusCVith half ™nar» "id for the rest of the . 7.45 ajii. to 5 pja., with threeyiArtera of an hour' for diimer. ' So the U very im■t° - tha - : £nen . because they got afSw? ' iL' sven a „ few : minutes" work after, ,these_ hours. -This would- not be ifcl Tf'V l^ least: U clock werG ' i the Government altered their Mbt v^ e, IS d not ' could tfoubie wouS arise.* 18 lncon "nd In reply to questions, Mr. Treeear -mid that it would be-too difficult te alter tte customs and habits of the people instead of altering the clock. Any part a failure. He ako J - ; vr aware that the'present time : one 1 think we are: fools in departing from gw° f T forefathers g o ln ™ to W when the sun, goes down." ■ 'i| 0, Inspector-General of ™°j' he ifid not appear as othor °w r f ; lth<sr ono side or the other. He was, however, strongly in S daylight K was fnS UavlD S had to-watch' lor a - T " ars a certain section of the rni?l n i Un i ■ '.work,; und had ? his mind' the question of ove^ir'. h « believed tjiat; whatever Hnn r PlaC€! 111 re^ to educar more 10 the use -of artificial hght than. to all the other causes £' t l ,W her - u " r hme was taken as that tbat wasassiim^ to Derignt lor the average oi places in . Aev,-Zealand, and it happened that it was "Bht for the average,of placw in Ivew Zealand: ISO degrees would be almost as near for the average of the workuig places in New Zealand. He thought that something like two-thirds of Hew -/calnnt. was- east of 172J- degrees, and a very strong argument indeed it would be ' twelve hours , ahead of Greenwich. Tho clock was wrong for the it / N ?r th '- IsiaiKl -' --So' that if half e 11 re lvould be a Sain of half an hour all tho year round. Ku&lfcif't all j 8 r -B'ackburne, nautical Aduser to the Marino Dopart.that if rthe . scheme 'were adopted thore-n'ould, m all nrobsbilifv* ■""WJ? lsl ®' ,V ttle -.^convemenoocaixsed, aSd mistc.kcs -made; but' ho did nil M, • that there was likely to be much inconvenience. If ho were a harhourmaster, should keep his clock at New inland mean time in order to save confusion. Soiijeone; ,knowing there 'was 9U hour difference; .might make the co^ : rection plus instead of .minus,, if that kL .Mt_ done, It would save all difficulty If larhourmasters at - tidal harhoufs were to be instructed to keep their "clocks ds i Present, _bec,iuse tide-tables could .not he altered; very-well; If the S!°FV s i wer f vogue,: a'note of 'warning Si »• PU fi the; bottom of the tide? $ h'r£? ,d:not - guarantee that there' ■ m,„ht not oe some mistake made which mignt cause, or'be brought in. ad causinc f6r the- colony for tlie filst tune would naturally keen Jie.usual, time, would not put their' clocyn unt: they got to the Dominion 'tide telXi 1 * tt!l "^ ht 05 fai ' as tlle tide-tables nere concerned. It was shins leaving Zealand that would be af! fected, and then the harbourmaster was mostly and if he were instructed to keep his clock at ordinary New Zealand mean time thinns u-nnlS work all right-at least he Personally he should prefer things tb'. re ' mam as at present. •_ b w

Employers Favour the Proposal. _Mr. H. G. Warren, on behalf of the Employers federation, said that the proposal contained in the Bill was unanimonsly accepted as of very great bone- .? an ,n , dustTia l Point, of view to both the employer and the employee. ;The current conference of the federation represented some 7t)QO employers. A few members were rather doubtful as ifp its' jeoriinj in some directions, priJicfpaUr

in connection -with press cablegrams, but that matter was outside of the Employers' Federation, and were all quite agreed ' that from a .health point 'of view it would be a, very excellent thing. What'.struck them more than anything was : that after the first day nobody would be any the wiser; but they-would be/gainiiig that extra hour of daylight, which would be of very great benefit, and which was now' in nine cases out of ten spent in bod. Personally, he was interested in factory labour, and from that point of ■; view he saw . very great benofits.'to both sides.;. Everybody was. awaro that the' .present time in New Zealand was only--'a .fictitious one. It would not make the slightest difference •if it were officially wrong all over; the' Dominion, but. it : must' be a general thing; The'federation' had hot suggested that the hours of labour wDuld .be increased in the slightest. There.raight be trouble in regard to cabling, but he, thought it would be' outweighed by the' -advantages. . ' . 1 •

Mr. C. W. Adams held that half an hour for twelve months would effect the same "saving 0 f daylight" as a whole hour for six months, and with mucn less inconvenience to the public. He thought putting back the clock would be a, most dangerous experiment. It would also press, very' hardly on bakers and imilkmen, who at present had to get up very early.' ' But. to his mind the greatest, danger to be apprehended would be from, railway accidents. Among .the ' inconveniences was the putting back the clock at the; beginning of . winter. Putting a clock forward was easy enofiugh, but putting it backward was very liable ito derange tho striking apparatus. If I there was an', appalling railway accident i as a. consequence of passing the present Bill, it would, no doubt,, be repealed at once; , and he had no'.'doubt that if it .was passed one session it would be repealed in the ..next session. . 'On the other hand, adopting 12 hours east as 'the New Zealand standard- time would have everything to recommend- itr It would be far better for health, and would save half'an hour every day in the year- in the cost of artificial light. It was .the usual .custom with a great, many 'sajvmills and ' other factories to begin work half an hour earlier in the winter, making the hours 7.30 to 4.30 instead of 8 till 5. His proposal wasnot in antagonism to the present Bill, but , accomplished the same. purpose in- a slightly; different manner. If his 1 pro-; posal did not give sufficient daylight for athletio' sports, etc., in summer-Hme, it would be quite easy then to take another hour or half-hour on-the lines of the .present Bill..

Among, others who tendered evidence were the. following.:—Geo. N. Goldie, on behalf of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association; C.' E. Adams, Land and Survey Department; A. Paul, Inspectors' Department, Bank of-: New South Wales; Jas. M'lntosh, manager of the Wellington branch of Messrs. Dalge'ty and Co.'s business;-and Mr. M. Chapman,'K.C.: