Hudson. — On Seasonal Time. 577 



Art. LVIII. — On Seasonal Time. 



By G. V. Hudson. 



[Bead befcyre the Wellington Philosophical Society, 8th October, 1898.] 



On the 15th October, 1895, I read a paper on the above sub- 

 ject before this Society, which, however, was not pubhshed in 

 the volume of Transactions, and only an extremely brief ab- 

 stract appeared in the Proceedings (page 734), which I had 

 not the opportunity of correcting. The subject has, however, 

 evoked considerable interest elsewhere, notably in Christ- 

 church, where a thousand copies of my former paper were 

 printed and circulated during 1896, and serious attempts were 

 made by a number of persons to bring about a practical 

 application of the scheme therein suggested, I should state 

 that these steps were taken entirely independently of any 

 action on my part. Under these circumstances, I therefore 

 think I am to some extent justified in again bringing the 

 subject of seasonal time under the notice of the Society, and 



1 venture to hope that the matter may receive a more serious 

 consideration by members than was accorded it on the pre- 

 vious occasion. 



As some of those present to-night may not have heard my 

 original paper, it will, perhaps, be desirable first to give an 

 abstract of it ; then to explain that the scheme is really only 

 an extension of the principles followed by astronomers in 

 determining the time standards at present in use ; and finally 

 to briefly deal with some of the chief objections that have 

 been urged against the proposal since it was first published. 



" In order to more fully utilise the long days of summer, 

 it is proposed on the 1st October of each year to put the 

 standard time on two hours by making 12 (midnight) into 



2 a.m., whilst on the 1st March the time would be put back 

 two hours by making 2 a.m. into 12 (midnight), thus reverting 

 to the present time arrangements for the winter months. The 

 effect of this alteration would be to advance all the day's 

 operations in summer two hours compared with the present 

 system. In this way the early-morning daylight would be 

 utilised, and a long period of daylight leisure would be made 

 available in the evening for cricket, gardening, cycling, or any 

 other outdoor pursuit desired. It will no doubt be urged that 

 people are at present quite at liberty to make use of the early- 

 morning daylight in summer without any such drastic altera- 

 tion in the established order of things as is here suggested. 

 To this objection it may be pointed out that, living as we do 



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