Sessional_Paper_1940 — Page 50

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Appendix I.

I

DAYLIGHT SAVING.

From a daylight saving point of view the ideal is for all workers to rise with the sun and to retire as soon after the setting of the sun as is convenient. Under modern conditions this is impossible, it would entail altering work and meal hours almost daily, certainly weekly. The average time of sunrise is 6 a.m., and it has become customary for workers, and thus the majority of the people, to rise about that hour and commence the day's work soon afterwards.

In high latitudes this custom entails the majority of the people rising after the sun during the summer months. In England, for example, the sun rises before 6 a.m. from March 20th to October 1st, and, in mid-summer, rises as early as 3.35 a.m.

There is, therefore, much to be gained by advancing the clocks an hour during the summer months, so that the working day starts that much earlier after the rising of the sun. The benefits gained are a saving of coal and oil for artificial illumination, and an additional hour of daylight at the end of the working day for outdoor recreation.

The same argument does not apply to countries in low latitudes, where the hours of daylight, winter and summer, differ but slightly.

In Hong Kong, where Standard Time is 23 minutes in advance of Local Time, the sun rises before 6 a.m. from April 20th to August 15th only, and does not rise earlier than 5.38 a.m. (Standard Time). A further advance of even half-an-hour would, therefore, entail the majority of the people rising before the sun all the year round. During the winter months many would be starting work in the dark, and there would be little, if any, saving of artificial illumination.

An extra half-hour for daylight recreation would benefit the community as a whole. In Hong Kong there are few open spaces and recreation grounds, and most of these are some distance from the centre of the city. It follows that only a small percentage of the people would benefit by outdoor recreation, and their gain would be at the expense of those forced to rise before the sun; the class least able to afford artificial illumination.

Zone, or Standard Time, was introduced to ensure that all the people in a large area use the same time. The adoption of a different time by any one community in a Zone is a retrograde step to the confusion that existed before Standard Time was internationally accepted. It would seem permissible only if that communify were a large one, and the gain in daylight saving considerable. An alteration of less than one hour is at variance with the principles of Zone Time and should not be con- templated unless for very urgent considerations.

The use of a time by Hong Kong different from that of Canton, the Coast Ports, Shanghai and the Philippines would cause some inconvenience to transport corpora- tions, bankers, merchants, and the cable and wireless companies. If the alteration is made in perpetuity the inconvenience will not be of much moment. The incon- venience will be accentuated if the time is changed by less than one hour, and much accentuated if the change is made for a part of the year only.