Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1909. DAYLIGHT SAVING.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4412, 18 May 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1909. DAYLIGHT SAVING.

This above all—to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day Ihou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

We are very glad to see that the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, with a just appreciation of the value of Nature’s free gifts, is bringing up the matter of daylight-saving for consideration at the forthcoming New Zealand Agricultural Conference. The proposal is “ That it be a recommendation to the Government that between the third Sunday in October, and the third Sunday in March, local time be one hour in advance of New Zealand mean time, the object being to secure earlier attendance at work in the summer months, and the enlargement of the period of leisure in the afternoon and evenings.”

The form of this recommendation is precisely that employed in connection with the English Daylight Saving Bill, in support of which Mr Churchill, according to the London Times, “ pleaded almost passion* ately.” Mr Churchill said that “ the addition of 154 hours of daylight would be a boon to millions of people.” Of the truth of this statement there can be no doubt whatever, While, in one sense, the increasing facilities for the supply of artificial lighting may be a convenience to society, in that these facilities enable us to enjoy our in door pleasures more, yet in a thousand respects the increag'ng cm j.l >yment of artificial light is telling against our health, and is detrimentally affecting our faculty of eyesight. A thousand suggestions may be offered as to the cause of the increasing nerve and brain troubles of modern times. The pace that kills,” alcoholism, i excessive t.ea drinking, the use of dangerous drugs and sedatives, and, more important than all, the shocking, cruel increase ot artificial feeding of young infants. This last is certainly one of the very foremost causes of the increase of lunacy, as it is an ascertained fact that no other kind of food can supply the brain bu lding properties which nature’s food supp'ies to the infant, to enable it to lay a sure mental foundation. WLei all these causes are allowed for, however, this other cause still remains, namely, man’s voluntary transgression of the Sun’s Jaw of rising and retiring. There is iron in sunshine. There ie, moreover, in the overflowing abundance of the sun’s rays, a pure quality of light which is well aiapted for man’s need, a light, which under reason* able use of the eyes does not tend to destroy the faculty of vision as does electric light, gas and lamplight. The evidence of this is to be found in the wonderful eyesight of the savage races.

Modern medical research has revealed the close connection which exists between eye strain and phy sical health, how that eye strain affects prejudicially the bodily health. This being so, why should it be d.emed an unreasonable idea to strive to mitigate this cause of ill health ? Moreover, to anyone accustomed to early rising, it is a fact that there is an invigorating quality in the very early air. This has found vent in the old couplet:— “ Early to bed, and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

This intense pureness and restfulnes« of the very early morning was once expressed by a Waikato farmer in the statement that when one went into the paddocks in the early hours

“ it seemed so fresh, as though God had been going about straightening everything in the night,. There can be no doubt that more daylight and less gas, electricity and lamplight would tend to better health, And we submit that if the earliest rising section of the community, namely the farmers, are prepared to support daylight saving, the rest of us ought to be glad to follow their lead.