1.—15.

20

[0. M. BOWDEN.

I will give you an illustration. 1 know of a family who are milking 100 cows, and they have to get tip at a quarter to 4 at the present time, because they have to get something to eat before they commence work, and that means the women have to get up half an hour earlier than that. If they get up now at quarter to four it means that if the Bill were put into operation they would have to get up at quarter to three, and, as I say, the women would have to get up half an hour earlier than that. Do you not think that that would be a hardship, and a distinct hardship, to inflict upon those people ? — Yes, but with reservation. Is it essential that the dairy factories should receive the milk earlier than they do now ? I think I have already told you that the employees have to be governed by the meal-hours, and it has far-reaching effects on the townspeople if everything is not uniform. There is another point that 1. would like to bring before your notice, and it is that in the middle of the summer it is most detrimental to a herd to move them in the heat of the day, and you have to wait until it is fairly cool to move your cows to the milking-yards. Tf the clock were put on an hour it would mean that the cows would have to be moved in the heat of the day ?—I thought that in the industry daylight governed the whole of the operations, and not the clock. Perhaps I have misunderstood the position. I am sure you are wrong ? —Apparently I have misconstrued the effect. I was under the impression that, except in a very few instances, daylight governed the business, and not the clock. Mr. Smith] Are you aware that on some of the Chambers of Commerce there are country representatives ? —Yes. - As members ?—Yes. Are you aware that at the meetings of those Chambers of Commerce that expressed their approval of this measure the farmers were present ?—I am not aware of it. lam speaking from Ihe knowledge of the deliberations of the individual Chambers of Commerce. You have no personal knowledge of the conditions operating on dairy farms in the country % —No. It may be possible that a good deal of opposition as to the proposed measure may have arisen as a consequence of prejudice- that is to say, engineered by misunderstanding of the proposal in its initial stage ? —lt is possible. Mr. R. W. McViLLY, General Manager of Railways, examined. (No. 10.) The Chairman.] Will you make a statement on the Summer Time Bill, Mr. MoVilly ? — Yes, sir--01 course, I have to look at it from two points of view. As a man interested in sports I would like to see the men take part in sports as much as possible; and. 1 also have to look at it from the point of view of the railway operations, [f the time of the clock is put forward an hour in the summer-time, and put back an hour in the winter-time, I do not think it would affect the time-tables at all. Ido not think it will be necessary to recast the time-tables. It would work automatically. The trains would mostly have finished their journeys on the day before the alteration is made in the time, and would start at the new time on the following day. We would save about an hour's lighting. That is all. That is the position so far as we are concerned. Mr. Sidey.] You see no difficulty whatever, Mr. McVilly, in the introduction of the scheme, so far as the railways are concerned ? —So far as the time-table is concerned, no. It has been suggested that there; would be a difficulty in that connection to a considerable extent ?—Oh, no. There is absolutely nothing in that. Have you made any estimate as to the saving it would be to the Railway Department ? —No. 1 have not gone into that matter at all. 1 know there would be a saving in the lighting, of course, but to what extent I cannot say at the moment. It would be considerable, would it not ? —lt would be an amount worth taking into consideration. It would aggregate to a large sum in the year. It would affect not only the stations, but also other lights, and a considerable number of trains '\ —-It would effect a saving in the lighting of engines, and matters of that kind ; but you must bear in mind that we are equipping more and more of our locomotives with electric headlights, so that the use of oil-lamps is practically discontinued, and the use of acetylene-gas lamps is also being gradually wiped out. And the carriages I—ln1 —In the carriages, of course, we have Pintsch gas, except on the Main Trunk and more important trains, which arc being equipped with electricity. There is one other question I would like to put to you. It has been suggested that the time of receiving milk at the factories is determined by the time that the railway-train runs, and that as the dairy-farmer works by daylight and not by the clock ho will have one hour less to get his milkready for the train. The question I want to ask is whether you see any difficulty in connection with such cases in making a modification of your time-table during the time that the summer time would be in operation ?—The position there would be that the time-table would automatically become fixed by the alteration of the clock, but, so far as the arranging of the time-table is concerned, the runs of the trains are fixed according to the requirements of the business and to enable us to give the people the best facilities. If what is at present 7 o'clock in the morning becomes 6 o'clock in summer, any of our trains which are now timed to leave at 7 a.m. would automatically leave at that hour —present 6 o'clock would become 7 o'clock ; but so far as the running of additional trains to meet the requirements of the dairy factories or any other class of country traffic is concerned, that would, as at present, depend entirely on the condition of the lines, and the number of trains on the lines. There are lines to-day on which it is not possible to put an additional train on at a certain hour.