There is no 2:00 am tomorrow.  After 1:59:59 am it becomes 3:00:00 am as we return to Daylight Saving Time.

Now, what makes this “Kiwi” Daylight Saving Time is not just the fact that Kiwis are making the switch.  It’s also because Daylight Saving Time is truly Kiwi.

The idea for DST began right here.

George Hudson, an English astronomer, presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895 proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift.  Besides being an astronomer, Hudson was also an entomologist.  Hudson was hoping for some extra daylight after work so he could add to his insect collection.

Hudson’s proposal was not well received.

But in 1909, the Honourable Sir Thomas Kay Sidey began making an annual attempt at forwarding a Bill shifting the clocks ahead one hour starting September and running to the following March.

But in 1916 Germany, not New Zealand, became the first country to adopt Daylight Saving Time.

Back here in New Zealand, The Summer Time Act was eventually adopted in 1927, shifting clocks ahead one hour on the first Sunday in November and shifting them back the first Sunday in March.  It proved very unpopular.  In fact, the time change would be revised just one year later, revising the shift to a half-hour instead of an hour.

It would be revised again in 1933, 1941, 1945, 1974, 1975, 1988, 1990 and 2007.

Modern Daylight Saving Time begins on the last Sunday in September and ends on the first Sunday in April.

By WeatherWatch.co.nz Analyst Howard Joseph

You can follow Howard on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hjosephwx