From the 1926 Supreme Court ruling to modern toddler tantrums, explore the 100-year history of the Daylight Saving Time debate and why our clocks are still on trial.
Very interesting article. I always believed that implementing DST in Canada was to benefit farmers (extra hour of sunlight?) I was surprised to find out the farmers hated it too. Though that makes sense. I checked and in fact Canada followed the US in implementing DST during WWI for the same reason.
1868 — New Zealand officially set a national standard time — called New Zealand Mean Time — at 11 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
1927 — New Zealand first observed daylight saving time. The dates and time difference were changed several times over the following years.
1941 — New Zealand summer time was extended by emergency regulations to cover the whole year.
1946 — New Zealand summer time (12 hours in advance of GMT) was adopted as New Zealand standard time. Daylight saving time was effectively discontinued at this point.
1974–5 — Daylight saving was trialed again in 1974, and introduced in 1975. Daylight saving time is 1 hour ahead of New Zealand standard time.standard time (NZST)
1985 — Public attitudes were surveyed and over the next few years the period of daylight saving time was extended twice.
2006-07 — Following public debate and a petition presented to Parliament the period of daylight saving was extended to its current dates. New Zealand observes daylight saving from the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April.
2008 — Daylight saving public attitude survey.
[Now I want to know what the outcome of the public survey was?)
So, we currently have half the year (April-September) as Standard Time (NZST) and half the year (Oct-March) as Daylight Savings Time (NZDT). We next change clocks - back an hour on April 5th.
I have always found it reasonably easy to adjust but I appreciate it can be very problematic for some people.
Very interesting article. I always believed that implementing DST in Canada was to benefit farmers (extra hour of sunlight?) I was surprised to find out the farmers hated it too. Though that makes sense. I checked and in fact Canada followed the US in implementing DST during WWI for the same reason.
Nice history of dayllight saving time.
An interesting article @Lauren Macquire!
It sent me off looking at the history of Daylight Saving in New Zealand.
According to a NZ Government website (https://www.govt.nz/browse/recreation-and-the-environment/daylight-saving/history-of-daylight-saving-in-nz/), the history in this country can be summarised as follows:
1868 — New Zealand officially set a national standard time — called New Zealand Mean Time — at 11 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
1927 — New Zealand first observed daylight saving time. The dates and time difference were changed several times over the following years.
1941 — New Zealand summer time was extended by emergency regulations to cover the whole year.
1946 — New Zealand summer time (12 hours in advance of GMT) was adopted as New Zealand standard time. Daylight saving time was effectively discontinued at this point.
1974–5 — Daylight saving was trialed again in 1974, and introduced in 1975. Daylight saving time is 1 hour ahead of New Zealand standard time.standard time (NZST)
1985 — Public attitudes were surveyed and over the next few years the period of daylight saving time was extended twice.
2006-07 — Following public debate and a petition presented to Parliament the period of daylight saving was extended to its current dates. New Zealand observes daylight saving from the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April.
2008 — Daylight saving public attitude survey.
[Now I want to know what the outcome of the public survey was?)
So, we currently have half the year (April-September) as Standard Time (NZST) and half the year (Oct-March) as Daylight Savings Time (NZDT). We next change clocks - back an hour on April 5th.
I have always found it reasonably easy to adjust but I appreciate it can be very problematic for some people.