1889-90.] SCIENTIFIC riME RECKONING. 233 



4. The General Post Office. 



5. The Eastern Telegraph Company. 



6. The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company. 



7. The Eastern and South African Telegraph Company. 



8. The Society of Telegraph Engineers. 



9. The Trinity House. 



10. The India Office. 



11. The Colonial Office. 



12. The Admiralty. 



To these may be added the Committee of Council on Education, and 

 the Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Indeed, I 

 cannot learn that a single ohjection has been received from any quarter. 



25. As the fundamental objects of the Washington Conference were to 

 remove all doubt and ambiguity in time-reckoning, to prevent discrepan- 

 cies, to secure simplicity and introduce uniformity, it is manifestly im- 

 portant that the changes proposed, supported as they were at the Con- 

 ference by the representatives of twenty-five nations, and subsequently 

 looked upon in so many quarters as in themselves intrinsically desirable, 

 should without unnecessary delay be accepted, and, as far as practicable, 

 put in force generally. The first important step is the selection of hour meri- 

 dians and the adoption of the hourzone system. With theseobjects in view, 

 the accompanying map has been prepared, it shows the position of the 24 

 hour meridians and indicates, in a general way, the country or section 

 of country to which any particular hour meridian has greatest proximity. 

 It would greatly advance the unification of time throughout the world, 

 and greatly promote the common good of mankind if every nation with 

 all convenient speed would take means to select the hour meridians on 

 which its reckoning of time may be based. Appended hereto will be 

 found a table indicating the hour meridians, which, in each case, may be 

 found eligible for selection, but in a matter of this kind each nation must 

 judge for itself 



26. I have mentioned what has been done in America, more especially 

 in Canada, in furtherance of this movement. If means be taken to extend 

 the use of the hour zone system to all the British possessions around the 

 Globe they will, individually and collectively, participate in the advantages 

 of a common reckoning of time. I venture to submit, suggestively, the 

 appended list of the principal British Colonies and Dependencies with 

 the hour meridians which appear the most suitable for standards in each 

 case. 



