KEY POINTS:
As daylight savings comes to an end, a fierce debate is raging about whether to extend it. This comes also as the US extends daylight savings by introducing it three weeks earlier than usual.
Prime Minister Helen Clark says she believes daylight savings could be "stretched a bit" at the end of summer and the daylight saving petition of Nelson City councillor Mark Holmes and United Future leader Peter Dunne had more than 35,000 signatures when it closed at the weekend.
Here is an earlier selection of your views:
Mat
I want to know where the petition allowing those of us who absolutely despise the concept of daylight savings, especially any extension to it is. Typical of our government though, making a decision and only allowing those who agree with it to comment on it. In case you didn't guess, absolutely no to extending daylight savings. It is an artificial creation that serves to provide a massive inconvenience (I absolutely love waiting in near pitch black for a bus in the morning!) to the majority so people can "enjoy more of the evening". Sorry, but that is not a good enough reason. Someone suggested that it would be good because people tend to get grumpy and irritable at work in the evenings as it gets dark. So, you would propose that those same people start the day grumpy and irritable? Pure genius!
Brown Boi
I say a big yes. Bring on the extended daylight savings. I honestly do not see how people could not want it.
Anita
I am against the change because I am hearing and reading that the Autumn weather is already upon us and it is not even the end of daylight saving yet. The fact that the Prime Minister is backing it sounds suspiciously as if it is a ploy to somehow extend shopping hours for longer or something that will be profitable for the Government. Extending the length will not stop the temperature drop at all.
Emma Hargreaves
No, leave it as it is. It is already getting very difficult to get the children out of bed for school when it is so dark.
Georginameo
Leave it as it is! It is still pitch black at 6 in the morning and as a female who enjoys exercising in the mornings outdoors, it would make me feel much safer with some light.
Joseph Barnett
"Extra Days of Summer on the way"? What extra days? We are well and truly sliding toward Autumn now and no amount of tinkering with the clock or of wishful thinking will conjure "Summer" back again, no matter how much we want it. It is already getting darker in the morning. I do not mind Daylight Saving for three or four months right in the middle of Summer but it's being stretched too thin at either end. When was the last time the weather was good enough in October to actually make use of starting Summer Time so early? It's usually rainy and terrible at that time of year. And saving power? Can someone please explain how turning the lights on in the morning an hour early and turning them on an hour later at night saves any electricity. It comes out to be the same. And it sure does not make me happier - on the contrary, I, my family, and plenty of other people I speak to breathe a sigh of relief when Daylight Saving ends and we can get back to enjoying being woken by the sun - not reaching out in the dark to silence an alarm clock and getting up, bleary-eyed, to eat cereal under the light of a 60 watt bulb. That is depressing. No, leave it as it is, or better yet, shorten it. Let us Kiwis enjoy our well-deserved rest.
Jo
Will this make the weather warmer? If so I am all for it. Will it make the day longer? Ditto. However I have a funny feeling at the back of my mind that the gummint cant do either.
Madeleine
We cannot "save" anything by changing the timing of available daylight. Knowing that I have to get up while it is still dark is depressing. It makes winter longer, where is the benefit in that?! My preference is for daylight saving to commence when summer starts, currently the end of December and to finish at the same time as it does now.
Margaret
The gloom is mounting as we find the days and evenings darkening. How come we think it is adequate to have only 24 weeks of daylight saving, when Europe has 31, and the States even more? It benefits energy saving, and it wastes good daylight on the times when we are shut up inside at work. NZ should extend at the very least an extra week at each end of the cycle - but preferably two!
Carmen
I totally support the suggestion of increasing the daylight saving period to the first Sunday in April. Due to summer weather starting a lot later now the extension would create more of this family activity that appears during the summer time. There are so many activities in NZ that would benefit with the extension. Sport, BBQs, kids playing etc. It would be great if this idea could be looked at and possibly implementing it for the summer of 2007 - 2008. Thanks for the opportunity to put forward mine and many other peoples view on this topic.
Richard
I think it will become far too dark by the first Sunday in April. Perhaps another week or two of DS but take a look at the darkness at 7.00am tomorrow morning and make sure you understand that this darkness will increase a few minutes every day and more of us will arrive at work in darkness.
Ron Stretton
It should be extended greatly for the benefit of the country.
Lynne
Yes, I am all for extending daylight saving until the end of March. The longer summer nights for us the better!
Chris
Cannot understand why NZ is not aligned with the rest of the planet, so to move it makes sense.
Danielle Bessant
I say keep daylight savings as it already is. In the mornings, some people have to walk to buses etc and I am one of those people. Already this morning I was terrified walking through the park to catch my bus as it was so hard to see anything. If there was to be an extension, I would definitely opt for it to be in Spring.
Carolyn
No! I say get rid of daylight saving altogether. I have never enjoyed it. It was terrible when the children were growing up and just as bad now for all of the reasons already stated by other people against it.
Harriett
A big yes. At the end would be wonderful!
Richard Owler
Extend at the end, possibly 3 weeks or up to and including Easter at least. Forget the wowsers and doomsdayers who live in caves and would not t notice: daylight in the mornings is of little use to those of us who work but we can extend daylight into the evenings and encourage as many as possible to utilise our magnificent outdoors.
Neville Mercer
I am opposed to any extension of daylight saving - compared to most similar countries New Zealand's relative position in its time zone already provides some level of year round daylight saving (i.e. the sun naturally rises later here than in many other countries such as Australia).An extension beyond its current finish would make it darker in the mornings than in the middle of winter - which would be very depressing. It would be difficult for farmers, for workers who start early (or would like to), for exercising the mornings (and there are just as many who do that as those who do so in the evenings), and mass sports events like triathlons, runs, and bike events could no longer take place in the cities on those weekends because it would be too dark to get them started and then safely finished before the roads were busy again. Lots of real reasons not to extend it against some form of "general happiness" to extend it.
Sally
I think that more than a "handful" of people get up early to exercise. Get rid of daylight saving altogether and stop being so lazy NZ. The world needs more morning people not less!
Prem Nath
It would be absolutely pragmatic to extend the date when Daylight Savings ends. Instead of concluding on the third Sunday of March, it can be extended up to the first Sunday of April, as the weather continues to warm in March and early April.The extension of Daylight Savings would give more time to all New Zealanders to play, exercise, entertain, socialise and have any other kind of outdoor activity. It would be good if the extension can take effect with immediate effect this year itself!
Robert Leahy
After the Second World war clocks in New Zealand were advanced by half an hour to be 12 hours ahead of GMT, so we in fact have half an hour of daylight saving all year round. In the summertime that becomes one and a half hours. Many thousands of New Zealanders, including me work shiftwork, I find it very tiring trying to get to sleep in order to start early when the sun is still shining at 8.30pm. Also I suggest everyone takes note of how dark it is at 7.00.am these days...making travel to work more hazardous in poor visibility. I would rather see a shorter period of daylight saving
Nettie
I will sign any petition that gives us a bit more daylight at the end of the day. Most of us are so busy getting our kids out of the door for school and then ourselves off to work that we dont notice whether its light or dark in the morning, but in the evening if it stays lighter longer then everyone benefits. And why does it have to take ages to consider all the pros and cons - despite the fact that WA took years to cotton on to daylight saving they made their minds up one week and jumped in with the change just two weeks later, not bad for a state that's known as 'wait awhile', maybe we're still a bit backward in NZ!
Sonia
I know! Lets shorten the average kiwi working day from 9-4 or even 9-3 rather than 8-5. That why we are all sure to get in a few extra hours of daylight all year round and we wouldnt even need to change the clocks! Who wants to spend the best parts of every day working anyway!
Demian
I believe we should extend daylight savings for as long as possible. It gives people the chance to come home from work and still go out and play some tennis or go visit friends. Noone wants to miss all the sunlight of the day while sitting at work!
Matt Baker
In principle, I am in favour of extending daylight saving. As a dog owner however, it will mean my dog has to stay away from the beach even longer because the already harsh dog laws are linked to daylight saving.
Kerry Klemick
We need to extend Daylight Savings now, It is just common sense to extend up until the first Sunday in April, that there could me no conceivable objection to stop NZ making the change this week. Please for the mental state of the nation, for once lets cut through the crap and just do it.
Mark
Daylight savings should be left as is, maybe ended earlier in March. I hate getting up at 7am and it is still dark. I think people do forget that the amount of daylight hours is still the same regardless of what time we set our clocks to.
Sean
I wonder how many people among these 35000 petitioners need to get up early and jam in the terrible Auckland traffic when the day is still dark outside? How much real benefit can people get from the extend daylight saving? Dont waste your time to bring the inconvenience to others.
Murray
Longer winters and fatter people is the result, as people stay in bed longer because it is still dark at 7am. Then when it is light after work, all most people do is sit down and watch the Biggest Loser on TV. If we are serious about reducing the obesity problem, we should be reducing daylight saving to encourage people to get up out of bed and get active in daylight. In Brisbane, where they have no daylight saving, people get up early and exercise. This is a knee jerk reaction to not having got sunburnt at Christmas/New Year, and will not do anything to change the weather. Extending beyond the equinox lengthens winter, so more people are grumpy.
Ngairene
I strongly object to the extension of daylight saving which, contrary to claims by supporters that it makes "everyone feel better", I and thousands of others find disturbs eating and sleeping patterns resulting in depression and bad mood. I dread the approach of daylight saving and look forward to its end. Starting in November and ending in April would be better. Those who want an extra hour in the evenings can start their day an hour earlier to achieve it - as well as decrease the clogged peak hour traffic flows. Extra sun also means increased exposure to skin cancers.
David Marven
It is disheartening to see arguments proffered for the extension of daylight saving focusing on perceived economic benefits. Other pro-extend arguments seem equally thin. This early bird, for one, is old enough to remember the pre-daylight saving era, when mornings were gloriously long, permitting all manner of activities to be done before going to work. Please retain the status quo.
Alan
Extend daylight saving, preferably permanently, all year long.
Trevor
I believe daylight saving should be extended in time. Making it permanent would be great.
S Sutherland
I support the extension of daylight saving, not just to the first Sunday in April, but until the end of April to take account of the Easter and Anzac day period when most NZ people are still in summer time mode.
B.P. Lewis
I am totally against daylight stealing even in its current form and to extend it would be ridiculous. Ask any parent what it is like getting children to bed when it is still daylight. Ask any high school teacher how lethargic teenagers are at the best of times It is far far worse with daylight stealing. My personal gripe is, just when I can get out of bed for work in daylight it is suddenly stolen from me.If office workers want a longer evening then start work earlier and leave the rest of us alone. Many overseas tourist have time lag anyway so it is false to claim potential tourist dollars from daylight stealing. I personally do not know anyone in favour of daylight saving extension. Think of the kids first.
Judith
I definitely would like to see daylight saving carry on as long as the weather stays warm. I think early may would be great as it is often very pleasant still.
Maria
I definitely think daylight savings should be extended. At this time the weather is absolutely lovely in the early evening and we go and spoil our chances of making the most of this time by setting our clocks back! Make the most of the day is my thoughts and we can do this better with continued daylight!
Michael Godfrey
Okay , so I am in a minority! I loathe daylight saving with a vengeance. Month after month of getting up in pitch dark, and then struggling to get kids to bed, (and myself to bed), with sun streaming through the windows later in the day. The absence of daylight saving in Queensland - where I lived previously - would be the one drawcard back. But there are too many Wallaby supporters there, so I guess I will put up with it.
G.C
Yes, I strongly believe day light saving should be longer. Other than the fact one can enjoy lighter evenings outside it, must be a great saving on the consumption of power!!
Sunshine Dude
Yeah, let us keep the clocks back 1-hr permanently and enjoy the sun, less heating required, more time to be productive, etc. Come on Beehive people, wake-up, act now!
Mario Trnjanin
I think daylight saving should be extended and that it should happen straight away. I dont think we should add on to the start, its early enough,
Marguerite Keir
What a difference daylight saving would make to those attending the wonderful Jazz Festival in Tauranga each Easter! Two or three weeks extension at the end of our daylight saving time would make this happen.
John
All very well for MPs and council employees who do not rise until the sun is up what about the rural and blue collar workers that have to rise and travel before there is adequate light to be able to see where you are going.
Shona & Ralph Bull
We would like to see daylight saving extended to include Labour Weekend and Easter, approximately 6 months.
Tony Wall
Under no circumstances do I want to see the daylight savings time extended. The period that it covers now is too long. I would suggest that it should be abolished and all that needs to be changed is that businesses open an hour earlier and that our clocks stay the same.
Garry Owen
I am a voice not in favour. I am a morning person and usually get up at 5:30am or earlier. Adding time on at the end of the day just shortens my daylight hours. Perhaps others should try getting up earlier too. It is the best time of the day. It should take a lot more than 35,000 in favour.
Tom and Barbara
Yes to extending daylight saving. And I think moving the summer school holiday is a good idea too, Most parents are working over Christmas and are having their holidays around the time children are going back to school. If you look at USA they have all their school holiday in summer. We can still have the holidays in the year, but at Christmas have the stats off and let the children have the holidays in February when it so hot.
Peter Taylor
Yes, change it to run from Labour Weekend to Easter Weekend
Richard Clark
To everyone who is jumping at the idea of changing daylight savings time, if you know anyone who is involved with computers - or for that matter if you know anyone who knows anyone who is involved with computers - for the sake of their sanity alone say no to changing daylight savings! Those who are not in the thick of it have no idea what an absolute nightmare changing daylight savings time causes for computer systems. For those pointing at the change in the US, Microsoft is charging businesses there US$4,000 for the tools necessary to help them manage the change to their systems, and that's on top of all the time and money spent on experts ensuring everything is up to date! Do not do it! Get up earlier, turn lights on later, whatever, feel free to change your life, but please please dont change time!
Eileen Dixon
I think having daylight saving longer puts everyone in a better frame of mind. It is great coming home from work and having that extra daylight. March is far too early to end it. May would be a better month.
Freddy
Keeping the summer time all year round. We are not all farmers. Getting to work in the dark and coming home in the dark is depressing. At least, an extra hour might brighten up our lives a little more and allow us to do more activities, rather than get home and crash in front of yet another mind-numbing episode of Coronation St or idiotic TV reality. Let us turn the idiot box off and bring on life after work. Keep daylight savings all year round.
Peter D Blake
I think it should be extended at the end by 3 weeks. I heard of research done at Victoria University where over the 5-year period ending 2005 the seasons had moved and were a month later at the end of the research period. This may well mean that we will continue to have more summer in February march than we are used to.
Adam
Yes, more daylight saving is a great idea. More vitamin D to keep the health conscious happy. It will save energy to keep the greenies happy. It gives families more time to play with their kids to keep the PC brigade happy. It gives everyone with a yard/garden more time to work on it during the week, giving us spare time in the weekends. As for farmers, they don't really need to worry about working to a clock anyway. As for all the night owls & morning haters, they'll complain whenever they have to wake up. More daylight is brilliant, we can all get more done (except the lazy people, who can just be lazy in more daylight).
Alan
Would be great to see two changes made maintain the current time so that we have daylight later in the day to cover winter. Then at the end of September clocks go forward 1 hour for 26 weeks. In other words do not put the clocks back on Sunday 18th March keep the time as it is next change in September.
Jane
I am against any extension of daylight saving. I would prefer it to be reduced to half an hour or by two or three weeks. Many people enjoy exercise in the morning and as Jo said many more should do it. Its horrible getting up in the dark in summer. Why dont people enjoy daylight in the morning?? It is still gloomy at 7am and pitch black at 6am now. What time do the extender proponents get up?
Alan
It is quite annoying, that you need to adjust all the clock in your house and office in daylight saving days. We like sunshine, but daylight savings can be much more flexible. Is it possible to have a permanent time arrangement? Like four hours behind is so good. We do not want adjust our "biological clock" so often.
Lee
Daylight should not be delayed, It should be extended. Every year the summer moves farther and farther away from January to the end of February or March. For the South Island people, Its always dark down there anyway. In all honestly, we should have two time zones in New Zealand to allow for the people down there to have a normal day But, please, do extend!
Mary
Yes, by all means extend daylight saving time. But do not start it until late November or early December, when our weather begins warming up. Extend it until the end of April, because it seems our summers are getting later, and March and April are normally always mild settled months weather wise. Starting daylight saving at the end of September is ridiculous, as our weather and climate conditions are changing and of late, spring is nearly always cold, wet and miserable, as previous weather patterns have indicated.
Lisa Rungan
I do not believe it needs to be brought forward but I do believe, because our summers are much later in coming extending daylight savings through April may be a good idea
Lynda Colmer
I would like to see Daylight saving start on Labour weekend in October and go out to Easter Weekend which depending on the year will either be end of March or early April. Having daylight saving start and end on a long weekend will give us time to adjust to the new hours - especially at the start when we have to "lose" an hour and get up an hour earlier (in the dark!) As one of those people who enjoy getting up with the sunrise and birds I am not in favour of extending Daylight Saving earlier than what it already is as October is still far too cold and wintry to really get any real benefits out of extended daylight hours at the end of the day. You still can't bring out the BBQ or go out to dinner or shows without the jacket & umbrella. The real benefit of extending daylight saving is at the end in March or April when the weather is much nicer. I do not think that Mr Holmes remark about "The handful of people against an extension [would be] morning people who get up early and do their exercises." is appropriate or necessary. There are always going to be people who object for their own reasons and this is not a bad thing. Why should one group always get what they want and what is wrong with getting up early to exercise? Perhaps Mr Holmes should try it and see what he is missing out on. We are all different and should be able to enjoy getting up in the daylight just like he should be able to enjoy doing more activities in the daylight at the end of the day.Besides Daylight saving is a misconception in that we are not saving daylight we are just moving the hours from one end of the day to the other. We still get the same amount of daylight hours in the day regardless of what the time says.
Linda
For myself, I really hate having to wake up an hour extra only cause I stay by myself and I do not have transport so that means I am having to go to work while its still dark, please leave the time how it is.
Joseph Francis
I agree with those who think Daylight Saving should be shortened. I am one of those folk who like it sunny in the morning, rather than struggling up in the dark. I can see that different people prefer the light at different times but why should proponents of Daylight Saving presume to force their likes on those of us who abhor it? Are we never to see the Sun in the morning again? Fair is fair: either leave it as it is or shorten it. P. S You use just as much electricity to light the house in the morning when it is dark instead of at night; that goes for street lights which work on sensing light.
Carl
It saddens me that politicians do not understand the massive problems moving daylight savings around causes in the IT field. UNIX, Windows etc all automatically change their clocks, People dont log onto all the servers and change them. Time synchronization is extremely important for things like billing its not a simple task just to switch around daylight savings without a lot, alt least a year or two and vendor support, of planning.
Rat Eyre
Must Chairman Clark and her followers frig with everything?. Soon some bright spark will want to extend summer. Come on people, dont we Kiwis have enough government intervention in things that really matter.
Teresa Brannigan
Extend the length of daylight saving so it finishes 4 weeks later. same start is fine. Maybe after 1-2 years trial change for the full yea.r
Fred George
I do not even know why we bother having daylight saving at all! Most annoying thing for me is I have to get up an hour earlier for work and when you are going out in the evening, it is still bright as day! The damn thing was only conceived to please the cow cockies, so I am certain the 35,000 signatures collected by the idiot liberalists are all farmers! If you can not remove daylight saving permanently from our calendars then leave it as it is! By the way, those extra weeks of sunshine the 35000 petitioners are crying out for may just be enough to turn that tiny mole on your back into a full blown festering melanoma!
Jo Hamilton
Please please extend daylight savings for the simple reason that sunlight produces happiness. The instant it starts to get dark when you go to work and come home, it noticeably changes peoples moods. I totally agree that we should delay it, even just for 3 weeks. That would make a huge difference. And also keep the country happy!!
Brian Manston
I hope that people who want this change remember that those in the South Island will benefit form the change and we dont just go on what the majority want that live in Auckland.I will welcome a extension to daylight savings to the end of April. An extra hour of evening light will benefit all of us. However any longer than past April and the loss of morning daylight will affect our road accident rate in the dark frosty mornings and our winter sports activities.
Annette
Why cant they just do away with it altogether?
Colin Baker
This is a long held debate that seems to crop up every year in any country that uses daylight savings time. Being someone from the Northern Hemisphere, I am one of the millions who until moving south was blessed with 30 weeks of daylight savings time. From an astronomical point of view, daylight savings is a false time suited to the clock watching 9 to 5 society concept. The nearer to the Poles you live the greater the benefit or loss you notice with that extra hour of evening daylight or morning light. Each time we change them we experience a minor form of jetlag. However in the south we despite the difference in seasons follow the Northern Hemisphere in changing our clocks in within a few weeks of each other. Us being the loser of the benefit of DST by several weeks. Ideally we should change to DST in late September and revert back to the true time in late April. The reverse of the March to late October of our Northern Hemisphere cousins.
Rose O'Sullivan
At a push, I agree with all those not minding 2-3 weeks longer daylight saving at the end of summer. I also agree to start it later when the weather is more appropriate. Daylight saving at the extreme ends can be hard on morning people, that part can feel like the dark of winter all year round!
Jo
While the debate continues over whether daylight savings is extended or not, I thought the most worrying remark by Mr Holmes in your article was: "The handful of people against an extension [would be] morning people who get up early and do their exercises." I would have thought that the growing obesity problem in NZ would be taken into consideration, and that changing daylight saving to produce another reason not to get up and do some exercise in the morning would be detrimental to us all!
Priscilla
I think that it would be a positive step to extend daylight savings. It is good for the economy in the sense that people would have time to go out shopping or eating out after work. Having overseas visitors, there is certainly more time for sight seeing. With an extension to daylight savings, people are able to make the most of their time. The weather has been beautiful. It is sad to see that extra bit of sunshine put to waste. I wish the extension could have been immediate.
Fiona Stares
I think Daylight saving should be extended until 1st April. Winter is long enough as it is, and why reduce our daylight when we can still be outdoors in the warmer weather.
Heather Coates
Please do not extend the start of daylight saving time. It always is far too early and cold and does not bring any benefits that we can see. Ok to extend it further into autumn by a couple of weeks or so to take in the real end of summer.
Marie
Summer is short enough with the new weather patterns, We need to enjoy it while we can, and extending daylight savings is one way of doing that. Winter is usually cold and dark and depressing enough, so enjoy the light and nice weather while it is still here. Yay for the person who thought of starting the petition, Great idea.
Leanne Li
I wish there is no daylight saving at all! Daylight saving does nothing good to me, It puts the family struggle with kids getting up in the morning.
Julian White
How on earth can anyone "save daylight"? All that happens is the clocks are moved, the amount of daylight remains the same. Let us keep it an hour forward all year and increase an extra hour from 1 October to 31 March. Wow, then over 90 per cent of the population will be able to enjoy more daylight.
Sharon van Geest
It would be nice to have daylight savings for longer especially as the warmer weather comes later as has done in the past 3 to 4 years. It would be good to have a last decent long weekend with extra sunlight hours (Easter weekend) and then go back to normal time after that.
Lynda Smith
I would like daylight saving left as it is. It is already so dark in the morning now and I do not want that extended.
Duncan
Duh, yes it should be extended!
John Thayer Jensen
I am a townie and I would like to see it extended. I love getting up early and not getting home in the dark. I would rather go to work in the dark, but get home whilst it is still light. I would like to see the start of it moved back to something like the third Sunday in September, and maybe the end of it moved forward a bit, but it's the start that I hang out for after the long dark evenings of winter.
Jeanette Miller
I heartily support additional weeks of daylight savings - at least until mid-April, or perhaps even the end of April. I do not think there is a need to begin it sooner, nor do I like the idea of year-round daylight savings. But at least another 4 weeks, please!
Royce Prisk
I believe we should either have Daylight Savings all year round or not at all. And preferably not at all. It should be one or the other. The change is a difficult adjustment for children, townies or not. Why bother?
Ian Parkes
Hell yes! In fact, let us leave the extra hour on all year round. It would solve the problem for farmers or dairy cows (whichever of them it is that gets confused); international phone calls and tide tables would all be simpler. Who cares if it is darker longer in the morning if you are at work anyway - or should be? We could use that hour to tend winter vegies after work, instead of giving up until spring. And as a cyclist it would be good not to have to travel both to and from work in the dark for months on end.
Mike Nelson
I am all for an extension o
