432 Transactions. — Chemistry and Physics. 



clear showing of necessity, it would be unwise for the colony 

 to abandon its standard. What we have to decide is how far 

 the practical convenience for us of our present reckoning 

 should stand against a demand for the somewhat neater ap- 

 pearance which would be secured if we could write our time 

 in almanacs and other publications as either 11 h. or 12 h. fast 

 on the initial meridian. The following points may be sub- 

 mitted for consideration : — 



(1.) In a country of moderate dimensions like New Zealand 

 it is desirable that only one clock-time should be observed. 



(2.) It is convenient that such clock-time should deviate 

 as little as may be from the actual mean time of any part of 

 the country. 



(3.) It is convenient that over the whole country similar 

 clock-hours of business should be observed. 



(4.) It is desirable that the time kept for ordinary business 

 and social purposes should be the same as that used for the 

 railway and telegraph services. Yet — 



(5.) It is important that our reckoning should, notwith- 

 standing the above, be in harmony with the spirit of the inter- 

 national system which has found such wide acceptance. 



All these conditions are fulfilled by our existing system. 



As regards the four first, it should be noted that New Zea- 

 land has considerable range in longitude. The narrowness 

 of the islands is apt to mislead us on this point. But from 

 the East Cape to the south-west of Otago the trend of the 

 country is markedly westwards. The difference between 

 the longitude of the East Cape and the longitude of the West 

 Cape is greater than the difference between the longitude 

 of the extreme east coast of England and that of the extreme 

 west coast of Ireland. Yet, though Greenwich time (which is 

 the time of a meridian in the east of England) is convenient 

 enough for England and Scotland, Ireland, for her railways 

 and for all purposes except those of the telegraph service, 

 finds it advisable to keep Dublin time, which is twenty-five 

 minutes slow on Greenwich. To put it in another way : The 

 difference between the longitudes of our east and west coasts 

 is about equal to the difference between the longitude of Lon- 

 don and the longitude of a meridian running through central 

 Germany. Yet Germany keeps a time one hour fast on the 

 time kept in London. 



It follows that if we adopted the even-hour plan we might 

 be obliged to have two standard meridians — the 11 h. standard 

 for the western half of the colony and the 12 h. standard for 

 the eastern half. Or, if only one of these meridians were 

 taken for our official time, we might find ourselves using some 

 local time in that part of the colony which lay too far from 



