Change your clocks this weekend - daylight saving ends

Don't forget to put your clocks back an hour this weekend. Photo / 123rf

This weekend is the end of daylight saving in New Zealand.

Clocks go backwards one hour at 3am Sunday morning - so best to do it before you go to bed on Saturday night. Of course, nowadays, many of our timepieces are electronic and will do this automatically, but those of us who are still a little bit old school, then don't forget to wind that watch or clock backwards.

While most people know the saying "spring forwards, fall backwards", not so many people know the concept of daylight saving was first thought up by a New Zealander who loved bugs.

In 1895, George Hudson, an amateur entomologist who worked for the Wellington Post Office, wanted more time to collect his beloved bugs after work in the evenings. He suggested a two-hour shift to increase the time he could give his sunshine-fuelled hobby, but his suggestion was largely ignored at the time.

The next person to suggest it was Englishman William Willett, a builder and the great-grandfather of Chris Martin of Coldplay fame.

He came up with the idea in 1902, suggesting it to the English Parliament as a way to prevent people "wasting daylight".

He suggested moving clocks backwards by 20 minutes every Sunday in September. Despite having the support of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as well as Winston Churchill, his idea was rejected by the government of the time.

It was the Germans and Austrians who finally introduced daylight saving in 1916, but it wasn't to stop people wasting daylight or to increase bug collections then.

It was introduced by the two nationalities to save candles and coal power, extending the working day as part of their war effort. They had the idea from Willett's much publicised campaigning in England and made it a reality.

Soon after, Britain, America and other countries involved in World War I followed suit, and in the United States daylight saving was originally known as "war-time" as a result.

Daylight saving was then finally introduced in New Zealand in 1927, 32 years after Hudson first suggested it.

So this weekend, when you get a whole extra hour in bed on Sunday morning, just remember, it is all thanks to a bug obsessed New Zealander.