time zone history for the Cook Islands - Christmas Day Act 1899
Cook Islands changed its date from the west (Asia, New Zealand, Australia) side to the east (American) side on Christmas day 1899. In 1899 the Cook Islands celebrated Christmas twice to correct the calendar. According to the old books, missionaries were unaware of the International Date line, when they came from Sydney. Thus the Cook Islands were one day ahead. ".... The Christmas Day Act was designed to change the time to that of Tahiti and all other civilised places east of the 180th degree of longitude: it is a measure that has been strongly opposed by the Maoris on previous occasions ..." (Lieut-Colonel Gudgeon, 14 Sep, 1899) See references below: Discoverers of the Cook Islands and the Names They Gave (Victoria University of Wellington) Christmas Day Act 1899 http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-KloDisc-t1-body-d18.html (page 60) PACIFIC ISLANDS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH RESIDENT, RAROTONGA. (National Library of New Zealand) Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1900 https://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1900-I.2.1.2.3 (page 20) I guess, Zone Pacific/Rarotonga was +13:20:56 before Christmas 1899 and on Christmas Day 1899 time zone has been changed to -10:39:04 (text Christmas Day Act 1899 on our web site): https://www.worldtimezone.com/dst_news/dst_news_cook-islands01.html (or Christmas Day Act 1899 screenshot): https://www.worldtimezone.com/images/1899-cook-island.gif Regards, Alexander Krivenyshev, https://www.worldtimezone.com
Thanks for the info. The Cook Islands apparently followed in the footsteps of the King of Samoa, who decreed the Fourth of July to be celebrated twice in 1892. Proposed patch attached.
On 2021-03-24 06:02, Paul Eggert via tz wrote:
Proposed patch attached.
At this occasion, we should also correct the switch to UT - 10:30 h in 1901. That this is wrong is hardly surprising: on an island without observatory and without telegraphy lines only sundials and the occasional navigation officer of a visiting ship had been available to control clocks in 1901. Thus, in the Cook Island Act of 1915-10-11, online at [http://www.paclii.org/ck/legis/ck-nz_act/cia1915132/], we read: " 651. The hour of the day shall in each of the islands included in the Cook Islands be determined in accordance with the meridian of that island. " so that local (mean?) time was still used in Rarotonga (and Niue) in 1915. This was changed in the Cook Island Amendment Act of 1952-10-16, online at [http://www.paclii.org/ck/legis/ck-nz_act/ciaa1952212/]: " 651 (1) The hour of the day in each of the islands included in the Cook Islands, other than Niue, shall be determined as if each island were situated on the meridian one hundred and fifty-seven degrees thirty minutes West of Greenwich. (2) The hour of the day in the Island of Niue shall be determined as if that island were situated on the meridian one hundred and seventy degrees West of Greenwich. " This act does not state when it takes effect, so one has to assume it applies since 1952-10-16. But there is the possibility that the act just legalized prior existing practice, as we had seen with the Guernsey law of 1913-06-18 for the switch in 1909-04-19. Michael Deckers.
Thanks for the additional info about Cook and Niue. Proposed further patch attached, and installed into the development repository.
On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 6:40 AM Michael H Deckers via tz <tz@iana.org> wrote:
On 2021-03-24 06:02, Paul Eggert via tz wrote:
Proposed patch attached.
At this occasion, we should also correct the switch to UT - 10:30 h in 1901. That this is wrong is hardly surprising: on an island without observatory and without telegraphy lines only sundials and the occasional navigation officer of a visiting ship had been available to control clocks in 1901.
It may be more complicated than that. The years around 1900 looks like a busy time in the history of the Cook Islands – 15 islands spread over 2.2 million sq km (850,000 sq mi) of ocean, 8.5 degrees of longitude and 13 degrees of latitude – which may not have all been in sync. More than one time zone might be necessary to correctly reflect the ground truth, though I recognize it's out of the primary scope of tzdb. If a South Pacific history buff was interested in a project ... :) -- Alan Mintz <Alan.Mintz@gMail.com>
On 2021-03-24 20:13, Alan Mintz wrote:
It may be more complicated than that. The years around 1900 looks like a busy time in the history of the Cook Islands – 15 islands spread over 2.2 million sq km (850,000 sq mi) of ocean, 8.5 degrees of longitude and 13 degrees of latitude – which may not have all been in sync. More than one time zone might be necessary to correctly reflect the ground truth, though I recognize it's out of the primary scope of tzdb. If a South Pacific history buff was interested in a project ...:)
Well, the text at [http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-KloDisc-t1-body-d18.html] seems to be a good introduction to the early history, when the London Missionary Society worked against the French influence for the acceptance as a British protectorate. They probably have used time of day as measured with sundials, local apparent or mean solar time with an uncertainty of a few minutes. More precise time, as needed for the operation of a commercial port or airport, requires either local astronomical transit observations of stars or else time signals obtained via telegraphy or radio; in the latter case, a time zone offset must be chosen, and one has been fixed in the 1952 legislation. And there certainly has been a transition period until all the inhabited islands had electricity. Michael Deckers.
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