The Kaipara & Waitemata ECHO WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE KAIPARA ADVERTISER & WAITEMATA CHRONICLE" HELENSVILLE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6. ADOPTION OF METRIC SYSTEM.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 November 1919, Page 2

The Kaipara & Waitemata ECHO WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE KAIPARA ADVERTISER & WAITEMATA CHRONICLE" HELENSVILLE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6. ADOPTION OF METRIC SYSTEM.

IN xhe early part of the liith century the Hanseatic League, which was a business organisa" tion of German)towns and merchants, extended its sphere into England. These merchants brought with them a system of weights and measures which has endured until the present time, and was brought to America from England, and adopted and used there ever since. For several hundred years the Germans controlled business in England, and ib remained for a woman —Queen Elizabeth —to rid the country of their dominance. In 1783, that great British inventor, James Watt, realising how irrational was the method then in use, devised a decimal system, which he submitted to several countries. It was this system which became the present metric system, Tallyrand, the great French statesman, was quick to realise its advantages, and caused it to be adopted by France. Thirty three other countries soon adopted it also, and to-day r in whole or part, the metric system is in use in 200 countries. Among them may be mentioned Arabia, Archangel, Abyssinia, Babylonia, Egypt, Finland, Iceland, India, Korea, Monte Carlo, Mazambique, Palestine, Patagonia, Siberia, Sahara, Siam, Turkey, and Zambesia. China, which for years has used the metric system in 28 ports, has recently decided to extend the system to its 426,000,000 subjects, In fact, the United States and Great Britain aro the only remaining countries of consequence which have not adopted it. The Arabic numerals, 1234567890, are used throughout the world. The advantage of a world-wide use of a uniform system of weights and measures is self-evident, Indeed, one of the first things our soldiers (most of them) had to learn, on arrival in France, was the metric system. To the use of this accurate, simple system 'is doubtless due, in a large degree, the efficiency in production and use of the German war machine. The chief cause of difficulty in making and rejection of shells by our mu'lition makers in J914 and 1915 was 4ue tq our wqrkmen who, having been trained in inches, were makingamrnunitrion in inches to be used in allied guns made in millimeters. The process to-day of making export goods in inches and feet, to be sold in countries where the dimensions must first be translated into centimeters and meters is so laborious and confusing and, finally, uncertain, as to work a great handicap on sa}es abpoad. To meet this disadvantage, exporters are obliged to translate their dimensions into metric denominations, but even this cannot always be done with absolute exactness, If we are to attain our possibilities in foreign markets, it is of paramount import' ance that we go to the modern system as soon as possible.

To change any custom which has'had universal use in a conn" try for centuries seems revolutionary, and suggests all sorts of difficult problems. We like our inches and feet just as the native in some lands to-day likes his antiquated wooden plow which has the sentiment of centuries of use. J.x\ some of our towns certain streets wind about, re~ suiting in 'buildings''of irreguiap and undesirable shapes, because years ago. a pow path followed the direction of. jeast resistance. Some of these freak streets have already been corrected, and no new ones are laid out so. Our present system has no better excuse for being continued, and should be changed. Any person of ordinary intelligence can learn ti>e nietrie system in an hour, anil scliooT oltiidretj \yij.i luascer it in a fraction of the tiino now required to learn the present tables. \