The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1927. REFORMING THE CALENDAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1927. REFORMING THE CALENDAR.

From time immemorial the forming and reforming of the calendar has provided the seers and scientists, says a Sydney paper, with a fascinating problem upon which to exercise their ingenuity. The great changes inaugurated by Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII, are of course .the best known of these reforms, the latter indeed creating, upon its adoption in England in 1752 a considerable disturbance. For it was necessary that eleven

days should be dropped lrom Lhe year to make it accord with the new .system. and dissatisfaction was thereby created in the minds of the uneducated. who imagined that they were being defrauded of a considerable portion of their lifetime. Several minor riots followed, and the statesmen responsible for the change were constantly being greeted with cries of “(live us hack our eleven days!’’ What would have happened it the change had rendered necessary the addition, of eighty days, instead of the subtraction of eleven, it is impossible to imagine; but a revolution at least might have been chronicled iu the history books. The inauguration of the Julian Calendar in 8.0. 4(> necessitated just such an addition as that we have supposed ; hut apparently the only public notice taken of the change was to apply to that year tho very appropriate title of “The Year of Confusion.’' By tile introduction of the Gregorian calendar, which is now almost universally accepted by the civilised world, the accumulated

errors of tlic post wore swept ■ away, mid the calendar was made so nearly accurate for the future that its main provisions are hardly likely to need revision. Yet there are many minor points about the Gregorian calendar that are unsatisfactory, and these (have for some years past been receiving the attention of the scientific authorities of the world with a. view to their improvement. For example, two of the main functions which it is the object of a calendar to exercise are (1) to fix a suitable epoch for the commencement of each year, and (2) to provide a convenient sub-division of the year when its other details have been fixed. In respect to neither of these matters is the Gregorian calendar snisfactorv. The difficulty over the first need not concern 11s, since the clumsy expedient whereby the Ist January is always brought within nine or ten days of the winter solstice—instead of falling, as it should, always on that date-is “near enough” for most of us. But the present division of the year into twelve unequal months is the main trouble. It causes confusion and uncertainty in economic relations, statistics and accounts; while its constant' changes necessitate special decisions for fixing; the dates of holidays and other annual events. There are other objections not so obvious, nor perhaps so generally felt, hut which are none the less serious; and it was in the hope of finding some method to obviate drawbacks that a special committee of the League of Nations was set up in 1924 to consider the whole question. That committee lias now submitted its report; and. while it is clear that nothing definite is likely to result from the appearance of the document for some considerable time, it is none the less interesting to consider its recommendations, and to learn that those recommendations have been arrived at after considering no less than 185 different schemes, submitted by the representatives of over thirty different countries! Of these proposals the committee has decided to refer three to to the attention of the public, “on whose approval any reform of the calendar must depend.” and refuses for the present to commit itself to any definite judgment or choice between them. These three reforms it describes respectively as “Simple.” “Partial.” and “Radical.” Simple reform would make each of three first quarters of the year consist, of ninety-one days, with three months of 30. 30 and 31 days respectively. The fourth quarter would have a day extra, its three months containing 30. 31. and 31 days respectively, the last month taking 32 in every leap year. Such an arrangement would benefit many commercial calculations, and would make it much more easy than at present to ascertain beforehand upon what day of the week any given date would fall. The “Partial Reform” scheme would divide the year into four equal quarters of three months each, the months containing 30 . 30 and 31 days respectively in each quarter. The remaining day would l>e an “extra” to he inserted before January Ist., while a leap-year would he inserted every fourth year before July Ist. Under this arrangement all the quarters and halfyears would be eqqal; and the months

would be mare nearly equal, too. than at present. But its disadvantages are obvious; and tile committee evidently prefers the third proposal of “Radical” reform. This -would increase the number of months to thirteen, of twentyeight days each, a total of 304 days, with an ’’extra” or ‘‘blank” day added outside the week, and a similar provision made for leap-year day. A calendar so formed would be “perpetual”—that is, the days of the week would fall on the same dates in each month of every year. Moreover, all the months being equal, in all respects, all business calculations would be greatly facilitated. On the other hand, the drawbacks to the scheme are that the year could not be divided into halfyearly or quarterly periods containing a whole number of months—a serious objection.—and that it disturbs certain religious calculations which are centuries old. "V\ Item all is said and done, it is sentiment that will prove the strongest factor in opposition to each and all of these proposals. That holds men. fast, as well as the conservative; distaste for change which is so strong an attribute of even liberalminded communities. To convince a world-public of the- benefit of a radical reform is not an easy thing, and that despite the fact that most people may be well aware of the confusions that the reform is intended to avoid.