DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3714, 8 November 1927, Page 2

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

A TTC TRALIA’S FAILURE. JE “That is exactly what killed light saving in Australia/' jffIHRH man who k 1 experience failure across the Tasman. “* years ago the scheme was ti the Common wealth, but the. • so much opposition that it v. killed, and has never been rc The trouble was that people l to start their evening entert ments later. They had got used going to places of amusement when it was dark or getting dark, and when summer-time was tried, they delayed their performances a halfhour, or an hour, as the case may be, and this was really the undoing of the scheme. Amusements were started much later, they naturally kept up later, and people did not get enough sleep. It was especially bad for children. “Alothers complained, the school people complained, and the farming community complained. There was such an outcry that summertime was killed stone dead. The whole trouble arose from people trying to burn the candle at both ends. They rose an hour earlier, and they wanted to keep up their amusements an hour later, but people found they could not stand it; nobody got enough sleep, and their health began to suffer. “It is to be hoped New Zealand ers will not be led into the same ( mistake. If they keep the dock V hours, summer-time will be a good thing, but once they try and filo an hour from the night, the scheme will meet with just the same fate as it did in Australia. Unless-, body falls into line and observes ' clock hours, I feel sure the id doomed to fail.” THE QUESTION OF TRUE TIM. There have always been a objections to daylight saving or. ground that it is wrong to' inter, with the time as set by the' s But such objections cannot h water for a moment. The met time of New Zealand, as a whol has, since 1868, been reckoned a. 114 hours fast on Greenwich, this being arranged by Sir James Hector. But Christchurch is about tht only time in New Zealand wher-’ this time is correct by the sun, the clocks in all places east of the meridian of Christchurch being behind the true time, and all places west being ahead. The variation in the true time is as much as 24min. Bsec., according to whether one is at the East Cape or at the extreme south-west corner of the South Island. FARMER’S POINT OF VIEW. Some people laugh at the farmer’s objection to summer-time, but many city people , quite misunderstand his attitude. It is not cantankerousness on the part of the /dairy farmer that makes him threa- jSj ten to keep on with the old time. The dairy farmer gets up in sum-. JR mer at daylight.. In many cases he*^^has to get his children to help him in the miking shed. Going as hard as they can, these farmers say it takes them all their time to get the cows put through, the milk sent to .the factory and breakfast over, so that the children may be ready for school. Under summer-time, the children will actually go to school an hour earlier in relation to daylight, and the farmers say it will be too much of a rush. Already several school committees in rural districts have decided to start school half an hour later.

Another point the farmers make is that no one will milk the cows an hour earlier than at present. The longer the time between milkings the better, so they will continue to milk at about the present time, whether there be daylight saving or not. The farmer says daylight saving will mean that he and his family will have to work an hour longer than at present—and the present is called slavery by some of them.