Story: Timekeeping

Ararua time

Ararua time

In 1945 New Zealand standard time was advanced permanently by half an hour. ‘Summer time’, gained by advancing the clocks one hour, ceased. But in 1974 an advance of one hour in summer was reintroduced. Dairy farmers objected to getting up in the dark to milk the cows, and some mothers pointed to the difficulty of getting young children to sleep while it was still light. The small Northland dairy farming community of Ararua decided to ignore the new time, and at the end of October 1984, when the rest of New Zealand switched to daylight saving, locals put up a sign announcing ‘Ararua time’.

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New Zealand Herald
Reference: 29 October 1984

Permission of the New Zealand Herald must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Timekeeping - Modern times', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/6707/ararua-time (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 12 Jun 2006