THE PUTARURU PRESS. THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1926. SUMMER-TIME.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 126, 1 April 1926, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS.

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1926. SUMMER-TIME.

Office ----- Main Street ’Phone 28 - - - P.O. Box 44 (Lewis, Portas and Dallimore’s Building's.)

ALL great measures of reform have been subject to abuse and ignorant criticism before being finally adopted. History reveals this fact so plainly that there is little need to elaborate on it. Nevertheless it is worth while, recalling the opposition to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in England in the middle of the eighteenth century, when the lower orders were led to believe that their life was being cut short. Such base incredulity has 'its counterpart in the opposition to the adoption of what is commonly known as “ summer-time ” or “ daylight saving.” In this case the idea is fostered that farmers will have another hour taken off their already short night, and have it added to their working day. This statement is rather peculiar for daylight saving would affect the farmers’ general routine perhaps less than any other section of the community. Bound by no hours a farmer already works, in most cases, from daylight till dark, so that the mere fact of the clock being put on an hour at a certain period of the year would not make the slightest difference to him unless he altered his routine. He would still rise at the' same time to get his cream away by the same train which left at the same hour, the only difference being that at short periods of the year slightly more work would be done in the milk*ing shed in darkness. It has been said that children on farms would suffer in that an extra hour’s work would fall to their lot, but such critics overlook the fact that if the clock is put on it would affect school hours as well as working hours. In the same way much has been said of the difficulty that would arise in catching early trains, but here again critics forget that railway timetables, like dairy factory hours, are set to suit farmers. In other words it would be folly to run cream wag*gons or trains during hours when no cream was offering, and it would be equally absurd for a factory manager and his staff to be waiting to receive cream in the middle of .the night. Train times are set to cope with traffic offering, and dairy factory hours to handle cream when the first consignment arrives. On the other hand, such a measure as daylight saving would ensure immense benefits for the great mass of the people who live in towns, and secure for them an extra hour for reci eation at the end of the day, when fatigued after a hard day’s work indoors. No minor details of anyone’s life' would be altered. The office boy would still gaze for the hands of the clock to point to 12 or 5, and the chief; could still make his business appointments at the club for his usual hours. The only difference noticeable f to either, provided they happened to be of a discerning* turn of mind, would be that the sun (if shining) would occupy 1 a slightly different position in the heavens. A somewhat lax custom has been responsible for most city dwellers spending the best hours of the day in bed, and the simplest means of securing more daylight at the right end of the clay, when all forms of recreation can be more readily organised, is to temporarily call, say, 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock, and to put one’s watch on so that the ; fact may not be forgotten. No more simple means of improving a nation’s health at one stroke is available, and it is well to remember that Old England, with all her conservatism and complex business life, has found in actual practice that daylight saving 38 a simple operation which brings untold benefits in its train.