1.—15.

14

[W. BROMLEY.

it. i remember quite distinctly asking my uncle whether it made any difference fco him as regards bis supply of milk, and he said that the. train came in at 7 o'clock, the same as it did before, and brought the milk, and he said that he did not know of any complaint from the farming community in that respect. I may say that what has been said about the habits of the. people does not apply. F am perfectly sure, although it is most deplorable to have to say it, that '.)<) per cent, of the people in the Old Country do not know the week when the practice starts and when it finishes. The practice there, of course, is to alter the clock on a Saturday night, it may be the wife or it may be the husband who looks after the affairs of the house and winds up the dock and puts it to the proper time, as they are in the habit of doing. On going to bed on the Saturday evening that was my job. I put on Ihe clock according to the notice which appeared in the papers three days beforehand intimating that at the end of the week the time would be advanced by one hour, and T got up the following mo ning according to what the clock said. I always wake early, and when I called the rest of the household and told them that it was 6 o'clock, and time for breakfast, well, they did not realize any difference at all. The only thing that is noticeable is that when you return from work on the Monday you realize that you are returning home in daylight. The week previous it was dark, and you say, " How quickly summer is coming round." That is the only thing you notice about it. I feel this way about it, (hat it would, benefit New Zealand to a far greater degree than it has benefited the Old Country, and for this reason, that we do not have the amount of daylight in the summer-time here that they have in the Old Country. A question that has been asked of the previous witness has caused me some amusement when it was stated that the dairy-farmer would have to get up in the dark probably if you advanced the time for an hour. But he does that in the winter-time now. If lie is one of those unfortunate individuals who gets up too early for daylight in the morning, and works too late for daylight in the evening, he is affected in no way. But for the town worker and, mind you, a lot of the workers where 1 was working at Home went in a lot for gardening as a pastime and for augmenting their too meagre incomes—it was a positive boon to those people to have one hour longer in the evening. It has been suggested here that the same thing could be applied municipally, but, that would be quite impossible, because you would have no harmony. You would just simply be trying to change, the habits of the people; and it would be quite impossible to apply such a system. But if you adopt a system that advances the clock all round, then there is no need for any change in the habits of the people at all. They will just simply follow their usual habits. If it is the custom of a man to catch the last tram home to Miramar at the; present time, he will still catch the last tram home to Miramar if the daylight-saving scheme is adopted. When the time was advanced in the Old Country there was a lot of opposition to it before it was tried, but 1 do not know of any one who is opposed to it at the present time. There was a lot of opposition to it at the time that the Bill was brought forward in the Old Country, but, whether there is a Liberal, Conservative, or Labour Government in power, I do not think it will ever come up for discussion again. The people are quite satisfied with it. 1 think that is all I have to say. Mr. Field.] They are all settled down to it in the Old Country as far as you know ?— Yes, absolutely. All sections of the population ? Yes. And you think the farming community will get used to it here ? —Yes, they will get used to it. They will forget it after a week. Of course, they have to get up earlier in the morning ? — They go to bed an hour earlier in the evening. Is that the practice at Home ?- Well, the pictures close an hour earlier, and generally the people then go home and go to bed. Mr. Girling.] How many months is it in force in the Old Country ?—lt is in force from the commencement of April to the end of September—six months. I suppose a lot of alarm-clocks are used ?■ Jdo not think it makes the slightest difference. I never realized that 1 was any more dependent on the alarm during the summer-time than during the winter-time. Ido not think any one ever realizes any difference. I may say that as a positive fact I have even heard a discussion going on among men as to whether the clock went backwards or forwards, and they were not positively sure. Mr. Sullivan.] Was it a subject of general discussion in the Old Country ?—Until it was tried there were many political speeches made for and against it. But after it was tried two days afterfhe opposition ceased, and no one remembered, figuratively speaking, that the clock was any different. It just worked automatically as before ?—Y r es, it just worked automatically as before. Those who went to bed at 9 before went to bed at 8 under the daylight-saving. How did it affect the wives and mothers ? How did the extra hour affect them ?—I do not think it was at all noticed. lam quite honest about that. lam perfectly certain that it only affected them in connection with the altering of the clock at the week-end when the daylight-saving commenced, and at the end of the period. They were concerned to that degree and no more. The next morning their week's work started at the customary time ; they had breakfast at the customary time. If they had been in the habit of having breakfast at 8 o'clock, they had it at 8 o'clock according to the new time. The fact of the clock being altered never affected them at all in regard to their work. Did you say you had an uncle engaged in dairy-farming ? —Yes ; he employs about seven men. Did the fact of the milking being done an hour earlier , , in the heat of the day, have any bad effect on the milk ?— -No. I never heard him complain, i remember distinctly once asking him if he had found any difficulty in that direction, and he said he thought that the cows must have adopted it too. We had it in evidence the other day that that was one of the objections of the farmers to the Bill—that milking earlier in the day affected the mik ?—Well, then, it would, probably be an awkward matter for them to explain why it does not affect the milk in Australia. They are milking practically at the same time in Australia and New Zealand, and it is a sultry climate and much hotter in Australia than here.