§ MR. HOGANI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether Her Majesty's Government has received a memorial from the Council of the Royal Colonial Institute, urging, at the suggestion of the Royal Society of Canada, the advisability, in the interests of navigation and commerce, of taking early steps to secure the unification of time at sea; and whether Her Majesty's Government contemplate taking action in the desired direction?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. W. E. MACARTNEY,) Antrim, S.The question of the unification of time, which is a very debate-able one, has received long and careful consideration for many years. The alteration of the astronomical day cannot be effected for the sea alone, as it affects astronomers even more closely than sailors, and it must also be carried out by international agreement. Foreign Powers publishing astronomical ephemerides were consulted in 1894, and when it was found, from the replies received in 1885, that the change would not be accepted by all these, the Foreign Office was requested to inform the Powers in question that no further steps would be taken by the British Admiralty. The Nautical Almanac for 1901 has therefore been calculated on the existing system.