New Zealand Time

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 46, 14 November 1907, Page 15

New Zealand Time

People do not know it, but it is never the right .time in Wellington (says the 'Dominion'). It- is like this. The Dominion of New Zealand is too narrow to have more than one time— the United States of America has four— so a mean is taken, and that mean is a line drawn north and south that passes" between Lyttelton and Christchurch. Wellington—if - the reader will observe the map— is further east than Lyttelton, so must be always a, little bit ahead of mean time which fact need not , cause anyone to miss any sleep. Carry the line right up, and one sees at &■ glance how grossly incorrect the time -is at Crisborne(through its adoption of New Zealand mean time)— some twentyfive minutes out. In this connection it is interesting to note' that there are two distinct times observed in one town in New South Wales— at Broken Hill. • Broken Hill is a weary way west of Sydney, so far that "no train runs that way. It is tapped by an extension of the South Australian service, and while one half the town observes- Adelaide time, -the other— 'the Government offices, etc.— adheres ,to Sydney. Adelaide is nearest sidereal time, but neither is -correct, "for every- town has a time of its own. In the meantime, that in the Dominion of New Zealand is a mean time, and we in Wellington are ahead of the time.