R. W. BHALLORASS. ]

7

1.--15.

the Home Secretary appointed a Committee to inquire into the social and economic results of the Act. It reported to the effect that the small temporary inconvenience of the transition from normal to standard time and back were altogether outweighed by the saving of artificial light and the general gain in health from the addition of an hour e>f daylight to the time for exercise and recreation. The following summer sports bodies have passed resolutions in favour of the Bill, and strongly support it. The membership numbers are taken from the. Government Statistician's figures. New Zealand Lawntennis Association, membership .19,967; Dominion Bowling Association, 13,943; New Zealand Golf Association, 9,115; Now Zealand Cricket Association, 8,566; New Zealanel Swimming Association, 6,443 ; New Zealand Re>wing Association, 2,400 ; amateur athletics (estimated), 6,000 ; professional, 4,775. The: total is 73,109. The league also"represents the following sports bodies who are not directly interested, but are. in sympathy with the movement: New Zealand Rugby Union, 40,000; racing,' 16,967; trotting, 6,349 ; hockey, 6,479 ; association football, 6,000 ; league football, 3,818; gun clubs, 1,614. The total is 81,227, making a grand total of 154,336. Now, Mr. Chairman, if I may be: allowed to elei so, 1 will ne>w make some comments with respect to the objections that have been made against the Bill. The common objection is that, there is nothing at the present time to prevent any industry putting the. clock forward half an hour or an hour. Efforts have' been made by a number of firms in this direction, anel the' Civil Service' have' since the: war advanced their hours of work all the year round by half an hour. Great difficlties are, however, met with, and it must be clear that feu- the measure to be effective it must be universal. Railway, tramway, lorry, anel shipping services are all arranged to meet existing conditions ; hours for meals and for bed are also similarly arranged. Awards of Arbitration Court fixing hours for closing anel opening weuilel require alteration, anel certain Acts of Parliament fixing opening and closing hours may require alteration. The opportunities of doing business with other firms are restricted. When the employees get away in the afternoon they may wish to spend the extra hour of daylight at cricket, but their club-mates in other businesses cannot join them. So yeiu coulel go on illustrating the: elifficulties in the way of a partial adoption of this proposal by separate sections of the community. Tho Committee: of the House in 1909, which die) not consist wholly of those favourable to the proposal, were unanimously e;f opinion that the object could best be attained by legislation. Another objection is that there will be very serious inconvenience to nearly all the people engaged in the primary industries, anel in some cases very serious loss. Now, I think that those men who make such an objection should be asked to show, by some detail, in what way the inconvenience and serious loss would result. The league has examined the question carefully and cannot find any real grounds for such an objection. Farm workers, whether engaged in dairy work, agriculture, pastoral, or orchards, are not bound to any hours of labour. There is no award which binds them to the time of starting or finishing. At present it is customary to work by the sun, rather than the clock, and the adoption of " summer time " will not compel them to alter their habits one bit. The Prime Minister himself saiel that the, farmers at Home took no notice of the.daylight-saving measure. Tn the case of shearers a time has been fixed-—a twelvehour clay when an early start is made ; but they are paid by the. tally, and not by time, and I am told in a great many sheds the clocks are: generally from half an .hour to an hour ahead of standard time. Thrashing-mills have fixed time, but here again it covers a clay of twelve hours, and is therefore made adaptable for weather conditions rather than for the object of making a fixed time for starting or stopping work. Outside of these two cases everybody em the farm can gei to work when it is most convenient, and knock off according to the work in hand, no matter what the clock says, and the passing of this Bill will make no difference to them. There is only one exception, and that is where: the farmer is working in conjunction with an.early morning time-table. Now, let us examine this question and see' how much inconvenience will be occasioned. I was going to take Mr. Williams's electorate, but instead of that I will take: the Acting-Chairman's electorate. That is the: Rotorua Electorate. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, his electors are not greatly troubled by railways. The line from Rotorua to Tirau is the only erne- in which he is concerned. There is a train once, a week on Thursdays, which leaves Putaruru at 6.30 a.m., and another which leaves Rotorua daily at 6 a.m., but it is 7.10 before it reaches Mamaku, and 8.20 a.m. before leaving Putaruru, and 9.50 before it reaches Matamata. It will thus be seen that the time; e>f departure from stations other than Rotorua are not at an early hour, and should not occasion any inconvenience in the summer. Beyond this, the major portion of the Rotorua Electorate is not affected in any way by the passing of such a Bill as this. The Rotorua Chamber of Commerce and the Whakatane Borough Council have declared themselves in favour of the Bill. Those bodies are in close, association with the farming community, although they may not be farmers themselves. They know the' farmers' condition, and they are in favour of the Bill. We also have an illustration close to Wellington here. Take the Otaki Electorate : The only early trains in the Otaki Electorate are those which leave Paekakariki for Palmcrston at 6.35 a.m., and for Wellington at 5.50, and the train from Upper Hutt at 6.27. These trains, howe:vcr. run both in winter and summer. During the winter they start about an hour before sunrise em an average ; in summer under this Bill the time would be well after daylight. It is in the winter where the, hardship is felt. In any case the number of people: that are, affected by the early train service is very small indeed ; and why should the hundred thousand people of Wellington be deprived eif the benefits of the Bill just because there may be some slight or imaginary inconvenience, to a handful of people who are compelled to use the early suburban railway services ? Similar investigations regarding the railways could be made in other parts of the Dominion with the same result. Early morning services are few and far between, and at the same time in large dairying districts the tendency now is not to use the train at all, but to send motor-cars from the factories, and they collect the milk and the cream around the district, and take it at any hour that is convenient to the, factory. This Bill will not force them to take their milk or cream to the factory at any hour that is not convenient to them. It will not, and you cannot tell me how it will.