G'morning again, David,

 DW> Here's two little QBasic programs I wrote a while ago:

Thanks very much - I'll unearth QB and see how they perform...

 DW> The first program uses our "usual" rule for DST, that the clocks go
 DW> ahead on the first Sunday in April and back on the last Sunday in
 DW> October. But now we are in an experimental period, when the rule has
 DW> been "temporarily" changed to the second Sunday in March
and the furst
 DW> Sunday in November. The second program follows that rule. Our clocks
 DW> went ahead in March this year, and will go back in November for the
 DW> first time. People are going to look at statistics for energy use,
 DW> road-traffic accidents, and so on, to see if the experiment is
 DW> successful. If not, we'll go back to the old rule in a couple of years.

Hah ... there's no announced analysis involved here,  although I 
supect the Road Accident and Police people will leap upon the 
opportunity to make statistical analyses (so our politicians can 
deny all the discovered correlations that are embarrassing)...

 DW> The two "new" dates are ones on which the sun rises at
roughly the same
 DW> time as seen from Latitude 35 deg. North, which is roughly the
 DW> population average for North America. The problem with DST is that
 DW> drivers in the morning rush-hour, when they're still bleary-eyed, tend
 DW> to have accidents if it's still dark. (Apparently, in the evening,
 DW> people are wider awake, and fewer accidents occur.) So the dates for
 DW> the start and end of DST are chosen so the morning rush-hour will
 DW> happen just after daylight starts, even when DST is in effect.

Changing daylight saving times here has been a thorn in one or two 
vocal sides for decades,  but this change did not come from such 
considered grounds as you outline.

The Leader of the United Families Party (of 2.5 MPs - 1 elected MP 
and 3 list MPs  that restore popular vote proportionality [1 
resigned just recently-but not from the House]) went into 
coalition with the minority Labour party to enable it to stay 
governing NZ.   When one or two sports people complained that 
their sport had suffered with the change from NZDST to NZST,  he 
climbed on their bandwagon and brayed that he'd alter things.

The Labour people needed his support on some other matter,  and ao 
the regulations concerning the start/stop times were simply 
changed one day to the public gratification of the allpowerful UF 
party.

MMP is such a democratic process here that no public or 
Parliamentary debate is ever required now for such matters.

After all, some of our senior pollies and our last Privy 
Councillor agreed latterly that the average NZ voter simply could 
not comprehend the complexity of some political matters, and 
should not be allowed to vote on them ....

If NZers ever take their pollies seriously,  there will be hell to 
pay - but in the meantime Kiwis tolerate them with bemusement 
while they get on with important things like the William Webb 
Ellis Cup and exporting Kiwifruit ....

Miles. 

 
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