A WAR LEAP YEAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 161, 31 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

A WAR LEAP YEAR.

AX ANCIENT PRIVILEGE FOR THE LADILS. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that with the advent of 1916 we shall have already had in tlie twentieth century two war-time leap years. 1 lio last was in HHJU, when Great Britain was engaged in the South African War. Leap year 19lt> will be remembered m its association of date with the greatest war the world has ever seen. Since the commencement oi the present conflict war weddings have greatly increased the marriage rate; what will be the result in leap year when women will have the time-honoured privilege of proposing it is impossible to say. Anyhow the tradition remains, and no doubt the custom will be put into practice by ladies who insist upon exercising their rights! Leap year, as everybody knows, comes every fourth year. The general ru'e is that a year has 365 days. Tlie exception to that rule is that every fourth year, that is every year whos> number is divisible by four without a remainder, has 366 days. The additional day appears on the calendar in February, which consisted this year of twenty-nine instead of twentyeight days, wheih is always the length of the second month except in a leap vear. ■ , • A well-known American sociologist has said that if every year were leap year and women could pluck up sufficient courage to "pop" the question instead of leaving it for mere men to do, we should be far along the road toward a regenerate society. The present day bachelor may not agree with Doctor Denslow Lewis who has laid down this proposition, but he will have at any rate to bear in mind during 1916 that he is liable to be asked by his lady-love to marry her! ST. PATRICK S DIPLOMACY. The legend is that it was St. Patrick, th 3 patron Saint of Ireland, who bestowed' upon women the matrimonial privilege which she is entitled to exercise every four years. _ And tins is how it came about. Walking one day on the shore of Lough Xeagli, m the province of Ulster, after having driven the frogs out of the bogs, St. Patrick was accosted by a weeping woman destined one day to be known as St. Bridget. In a sympathetic mood St. Patrick, so tradition says, inquired of the woman why she was in tears, and the reply she gave was that a mutiny had broken out because women claimed the right of proposing, just as they are claiming the right to vjte to-day, and she was unable to accede to their request. St. Patrick gravelyconsidered the question—he does not seem to have received a deputation of the recalcitrant maidens —and declared that the right to propose marriage should revert to the feminine sex every seventh year. This did not satisfy Ins interlocutor, who urged St. Patrick to extend the privilege to every fourth year. The Saint, apparently moved by the woman's tearful pleadings, agreed, and with Irish generosity declared that lie would make the "ladies' year'' every Leap Y'ear, because that was the longest of the lot. And then to complete the legend it is is narrated that the lady, emboldened by her success, and anxious o go down to history as the first woman to ava'l herself of the accorded privilege, proposed to St. Patrick there and then. It was impossible, however, for the Saint to accept the olfer of her heart and hand, ana as solatium no doubt for her "wounded feelings" he presented the lady with a silk gown. That, according- to Irish lore, is how the logon 1 arose that women may propose to men during Leap Year, ana that if they are refused they may claim a silk dress. AX OLD SCOTTISH LAW. History appears to have recognised what tradition established, and spinsters were given a rare opportunity 'n 1288, when, by a law passed in Scotland, it was enacted: — " It is statut and ordaint that during the rein of hir maisr blissit Mageste, for ilk yeare knowne as lepe year, ilk mayden ladye of bothe highe and lowe estate shall hae liberte to bespeake ye man she likes, albeit he refuses to talk hir to 1)0 his 'awful wife, he shall be mulcted in ye sum ane poundis or less, as his estait may be, except and awjs gife he can make it appeare that he is bethrothit ane ither woman he shall then be free." Shortly after this a similar statute passed in France was approved by the then King. The effect of these laws is not known. Unfortunately no statistics are extant showing the number of spinsters in Scotland or France who availed themselves of the privileges thus bestowed: nor is there any record of the number, if any, of fines imposed under theh Scottish law. By 1605 the leap year privilege of women appears to have liecome a part of the unwritten law in England. A curoius little book published at that date contains these words: —"Albeit it nowe become a part of the common law in regard to social relations of life that as often as every Year t-oth return, the la dyes have the sole privilege during the whole t'me it continued of making love, either by word.es or lookes, as to them it seemeth proper, and, moreover, no men will be entitled to benefit of clergy who doth in any wise treat her proposal with slight or contumely." But again we have no record of the extent to which the right was exercised. AXCIEXT TRADITIOXS. An ancient Leap Y'ear tradition, of whose origin no trace remains, decreed that a lady, who although "of feelings rather bashful yet could not make up her mind to express those in words," might convey the idea by disclosing the smallest glimpse of red petticoat to S:e object of her affections, while another superstition prevails in some parts of England to the effect that in Leap Year "beans grow on the wrong side of il o pod." The on'v use made of Leap Year privileges in modern times, except rare cases, sterns to be at a ball when a "Leap Year dance" is introduced on the programme. ('> these occasions husbands or brotiie •> come in for quite an unusual amo int of attention from their wives an I siste,-.--, and it is probably the only on' -n 4 on on which women take up the position of "wallflowers" willingly. The additional day which Leap Year brings into the calendar has some enrolls' effects quite apart from the licence it is supposed to give to unmarried ladies to ''pop tlie question." It influences business and financial matters in no small degree. The man, for instance, who has investments at a fixed rate of interest gets nothing for the use of his money for the extra day. The owner of house property let on yearly, quarterly, or monthly tenancy receives nothing for the additional day. The tenant gets one day n occupation of the premises free, HOW SALARIES ARE AFFECTED. Take again, th" matter of salaries

and wages. Tlie emp'oyee on a yearly salary pa'd monthly or quarterly works the extra day for nothing whereas the man receiving weekly wages gets an additional day's pay in the year. In fact, the employee on weekly wages lias one advantage over the man on salary. Ordinarily the year has fifty-two weeks and one day. The weekly servant is paid for th_- extra day; the official receiving his salary is not.

For th," sake of illustration, we may take an official who is paid periodically at the rate of £6 per week. His income for tlie year is £312. The emp'oyee who is paid £6 weekly receives £313 for the year, because he has the advantage of tlie extra day. In 1916 lie will receive £3ll. Strange as it may at first sight appear, the "weekly servant may have fifty-three pay days in one year. How can that lie when there are onlv fiftv-two weeks in a year.-' Well, alio 1910. for instance. That year commenced on a Saturday. Ihe majority of working men get their wages on that day, and so m that year there were fiftv-three pay days. To the Chancellor of the Exchequer L°ap Year is vastly important. It gives 366 days productive ot revenue ins «"hj of the usual 36"). 'lhe Cu.roiiis r.ul Excise offices, all tlie tax-coli--ting c,epartments, find their receipts swHod by Leap Year; tlie Po-t Office has an extra day of profitable wore ng w! lie the Government Telephone Department will have one clay more on which to harass :ts subscribers. That it is a d'stinct drawback to he born on February 29 is obvious, so far as receiving birthday presents is concerned, though as age advances, it must he distinctly satisfactory to hav-"> a birthday only once in four years. As a matter of fact. February 29 is a comparatively new day in tlie calendar. At one time Leap day was placed before February 24, February 23 "Cim reckoned twice over, so that prior to the revision of the Liturgy at the Restoration, the date when February 2;' was introduced, the Leap Year chi'-v had nothing to fear in the way of loss of nrcsents.