PUTTING ON THE CLOCK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 97, 15 July 1927, Page 8

PUTTING ON THE CLOCK

PARTICULAR interest attaches to Mr. Sidey’s Summer Time Bill, the second reading of which was last night carried by a vote of 33 to 21 in the House of Representatives, if only hv reason of its sponsor’s persistence in bringing it before Parliament .session after session; his confidence undiminished in the usefulness of this particular piece of legislation in spite of every setback. Deputations to the Prime Minister, representing the medical profession, chambers of commerce and shipping companies, have voiced their approval of the measure, and it is true that the farming community has to a large extent overcome its former antipathy to the proposed change, and is willing at any rate to give it a trial. It is a fact that there is opposition from the Farmer’s Union, but it is doubtful whether the union really represents the hulk of the farming community, and in any case there is a division of opinion even among its members. There are varying opinions in the House of Representatives, of course, as was shown by the division on the second reading of the Rill; but it is well to pay particular notice to the remarks of Mr. Wilford, who has only recently returned from abroad. It has never been challenged that the operation of the Summer Time Bill in England has been a success. Mr. Wilford, who has consistently supported the measure here for the past, 18 years, stated that he was more than ever confirmed in the wisdom of this support by his experience of the principle of daylight saving in England and France last summer. Though he had travelled very extensively in the rural districts o£ England, Scotland and France, he had not met a single objector. Against the proposal it may he urged that New South Wales tried the experiment for one season by legislative enactment and did not return to it. But the conditions are vastly different. In Australia, where it is daylight during the summer from before 4 a.m. until after 8 p.m., there is little need to put on the clock. Here the evening light is of much briefer duration, and it is with the idea of lengthening the daylight during the hours of leisure after the day’s work that the experiment is desired. It is merely an experiment, in any case, and if it does not achieve the hopes of its supporters, but tends in any way to inconvenience any large section of the population, then it can he discarded. Last year the measure was defeated in the Legislative Council by a narrow majority. It is a fair thing, now the widespread

backing of the Bill is apparent, that the Council should approve of giving the principle a sporting chance by seconding the vote of the House of Representatives.