It’s been a part of us for damned near half a century, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon, so suck it up. It was cemented in place 1975 but we still hear people carping on, but for no real reason it seems. 

I am talking about daylight saving - whereby the Government took over the good work of God and granted us one extra hour of daylight at the end of the day to enjoy. 

It gives us more daylight hours during summer and winter. In summer we score an extra hour of light in the evenings, and in winter, sunrise arrives earlier. Just in case we haven’t figured it after 49 years. Mind you, twice a year I have to stop and figure whether I am going back or forward. However, good on you, thanks, I enjoy and use DST well. The arrival of daylight saving is like someone has flicked a switch inside. I have physically and chemically moved seasons. My mood switches dramatically, although it may seem to most that I am still the same cranky old fart I always am.  

The complaining about DST was mainly from sniffy farmers who objected to getting up to milk cows in the dark. Forty-nine percent of dairy farmers disapproved because they claimed it had a “personal impact” on them. Don’t know how – the cows still had to be milked, whether it was now or in an hour’s time. But I think even they have mellowed to the idea now. And a few Mums who pointed to the difficulty of getting their littlies to sleep while it was still light. I always loved that sign in Ararua in Northland where they decided to ignore the new time. It said, “Welcome to Araria, drive slow because you are an hour early anyhow.”  

Harold Cholmondley-Smythe, Greerton