Time zones in New Zealand

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New Zealand has two time zones .

Overview

The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) , which is 12 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) . The Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST) , 12 hours and 45 minutes prior to UTC.

In summer, the clock is advanced one hour during summer time. The New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT) is 13 hours before UTC, the Chatham Daylight Time (CHADT) 13:45 hours.

The Ross subsidiary area in Antarctica claimed by New Zealand is used as well as the McMurdo Station and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station NZST / NZDT research stations.

There are also New Zealand Associated Territories in the Pacific in additional time zones on either side of the date line :

  • The Cook Islands are in the UTC − 10 time zone and do not use daylight saving time. Because of its location on the other side of the date line, the time is 22 or 23 hours behind the time in New Zealand.
  • Also Tokelau had until December 29, 2011 in this time zone, but changed then to Samoa from the eastern to the western side of the International Date Line ( International Dateline (IDL)) and has since been in the time zone UTC + 13, also without summer time.
  • Niue is in the UTC − 11 time zone.
Zone Standard time Summertime
New Zealand UTC + 12 UTC + 13
Chatham Islands UTC + 12: 45 UTC + 13: 45
Tokelau UTC + 13
Niue UTC-11
Cook Islands UTC-10

history

On November 2, 1868, New Zealand officially introduced a nationwide Standard Time. It was one of the first, possibly even the first state, to introduce a standard time. It was based on a longitude of 172 ° 30 ′ east of Greenwich , 11:30 hours before Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This standard became known as New Zealand Mean Time (NZMT).

During the Second World War in 1941, the clocks were put forward half an hour, making New Zealand 12 hours ahead of GMT. This change was made permanent with the Standard Time Act 1945 in 1946 , which set the meridian 180 ° East as the base for New Zealand time. The NZST stayed half an hour ahead of the NZMT, the Chatham Islands 45 minutes.

In the late 1940s, the atomic clock was developed and several laboratories developed time scales based on atomic time. A new time scale, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), was introduced internationally in 1972. This is based on the display of an atomic clock, which is adjusted at intervals with the help of leap seconds to the fluctuations in the earth's rotation .

The Time Act 1974 set New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) to be 12 hours ahead of UTC.

Summertime

Since 2007, New Zealand has switched to daylight saving time between the last Sunday in September and the first Sunday in April.

Starting in 1909, the MP Sir Thomas Kay Sidey brought a bill annually to put the clock forward one hour from September to March. This resulted in the 1927 The Summer Time Act 1927 : the summer time from the first Sunday in November to the first Sunday in March was introduced. This regulation proved to be less popular, so that in the following year The Summer Time Act 1928 changed the regulation to a half-hour shift between October 14, 1928 (second Sunday in October) to March 17, 1929 (third Sunday in March). The The Summer Time Act 1929 retained this regulation. In 1933 summer time was extended to the time between the first Sunday in September and the last Sunday in April. This regulation was retained until the Second World War. The emergency laws of 1941 extended summer time to the whole year. This regulation was extended annually and was maintained until the Standard Time Act came into force in 1945. This law made the abolition of the NZMT permanent from 1946, the earlier summer time became the standard time in New Zealand as NZST.

The Time Act 1974 gave the Governor General of New Zealand the power to make arrangements for daylight saving time. Through this regulation, a half-hour shift of the time from the first Sunday in November to the last Sunday in February was introduced, which was changed in the following year by the New Zealand Time Order 1975 to a period between the first Sunday in October and the first Sunday in March.

In 1985 the Department of Internal Affairs conducted a study of public opinion about summer time and its effects on the world of work, leisure and specific groups of the population. According to this study, 76.2% of the population were in favor of maintaining or extending daylight saving time.

The research also found that support for summer time was higher in cities and there was less difference in preferences between the sexes. An exception was Ararua , who refused to change the clock for a few years. Demands for a reduction in or abolition of summer time were only represented by a minority in the areas examined.

As a result of the investigations and feedback from the population, the Ministry of the Interior introduced a trial extension of summer time from the second Sunday in October 1989 to the third Sunday in March for 1990 in 1988. The minister asked the public for feedback on the five-week extension.

The Daylight Time Order 1990 set daylight saving time between 2 a.m. NZST on the first Sunday in October and 3 a.m. NZDT on the third Sunday in March. On April 30, 2007, the government announced that it would extend daylight saving time from 24 to 27 weeks. Since September 2007, summer time has been in effect between the last Sunday in September and the first Sunday in April.

Time standard

The time standard for New Zealand is administered by the Measurement Standards Laboratory , which is part of Industrial Research . The time signal is made available on Radio New Zealand by voice announcement and Network Time Protocol .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tokelau: Wrong local time for over 100 years . timeanddate.com , August 7, 2012, accessed June 9, 2015 .
  2. ↑ www.dia.govt.nz