King. — On Neio Zealand Mean Time. 429 



principal town (or of some other place which was judged more 

 suitable) without reference to the times adhered to in other 

 districts, and we thus had four distinct times. This worked 

 well enough for many years. When communication between 

 the different parts of the country was slow and our over- 

 sea trade was carried on chiefly by means of sailing-vessels, 

 the inconvenience arising from diversity of times was scarcely 

 appreciable. But with the acceleration of the colony's coastal 

 carrying services, with the introduction of steam navigation 

 between Australian and New Zealand ports, and, above all, 

 with the rise of our railway and telegraph systems, the case 

 was altered. By the middle "sixties" it was realised that 

 some more uniform plan was essential. The question was 

 discussed at intervals without action immediately resulting ; 

 but at last, in 1868, Dr. Hector was asked by the Government 

 to submit proposals for a standard time suitable for use 

 throughout the whole colony. The subject of time reform 

 had before this engaged his attention. In 1860 — at the close 

 of his exploration-work in the Bocky Mountains and on the 

 Canadian-United States frontier — he had pointed out in a 

 report to the Canadian Government the modification of the 

 existing reckoning which would be found necessary on the 

 long route of the Canadian Pacific Bailway. Canada and the 

 United States were ultimately forced by circumstances to 

 adopt this modification. 



Under the new system clock-times are made to change by 

 even intervals of an hour on the journey east or west across 

 the American Continent, the minutes and seconds of all 

 clocks, in whatever longitude they may be situated, remaining 

 the same. The United States and Canada were the earliest 

 countries of importance to rationalise their times in this way, 

 and it has been largely due to their efforts that a similar 

 reform has been wrought in other parts of the world. Canada 

 in particular was honourably active in pressing the question 

 upon the attention of Europe. 



I do not know if Sir James Hector is disposed to claim 

 that his prediction may have been the germ from which the 

 movement in North America originated ; but whether the 

 hint was fruitful or not it would appear as if in point of 

 fact he was first in the field. The earliest advocacy of such 

 a scheme which is reported in the ordinary accounts of the 

 reform was contained in a pamphlet published ten years 

 afterwards by Professor C. Dowd, of Saratoga Springs, who 

 advanced a proposal for hourly meridians, based, however, on 

 Washington time. But the point with which we are now 

 concerned is that in making his recommendation to the New 

 Zealand Government in 1868 Dr. Hector had this sensible 

 principle of hourly meridians in his mind. 



