Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 9 May 1923

Vol. 1 No. 22

THE METRIC SYSTEM.

Mr. DE LOUGHREY

I beg to move the motion in my name:—

That the Government be asked to appoint a Commission, with power to examine voluntary witnesses, to inquire into and report on the desirability or otherwise of adopting the Metric System in Saorstát Eireann, and that it be a special instruction to such Commission to consider very carefully all the various possible intermediate courses between full adoption and non-adoption, such as adoption of the Metric System for measurements of length and area, but not for weights or capacity, adoption for official use (including Government contracts and stores and dutiable commodities), but not for general use (and so on), with a view to reporting on the desirability, if so thought fit, of some such partial adoption, if full adoption is considered, after inquiry, not to be desirable.

This motion asks the Government to appoint a Commission to inquire into the advisability of adopting the Metric System. My original intention in proposing the motion was to afford an early and ample opportunity to the Government to consider fully the advisability of adopting the Metric System. From my own observation on the subject, I believe, the present time is opportune, as we are now in a position to act independently and in advance of Great Britain. To do so would put us in closer touch with the requirements of foreign trade, and tend to promote direct commercial dealings with the Continent. The Seanad is aware that this system is obligatory in every European country, except Great Britain, Ireland, Russia and Turkey. It is obligatory in the Argentine, Chili, Peru and Mexico. It is permissive in the United States, Egypt and Japan. It has been made permissive by the Metric System Act of 1897, for use in Great Britain and Ireland.

One important consideration turning on the fact that the system is bound to come sooner or later, is, even if no part of it is thought feasible at present, that the people generally should be made familiar with the values and advantageous simplicities of the system of units. School children should be taught to regard it as something which will be an everyday concern of their lives, and not a remote study of foreign weights and measures. People generally should be made as familiar as possible with this system of units, and the proposed Commission would do a great deal to effect that state of affairs. I quite realise that this question is so big that an individual opinion does not count very much, but I think it is of sufficient importance to warrant us, and to warrant the Government considering it in all its aspects with a view to seeing if it is advisable or desirable to adopt the system partly or wholly.

Mr. DOWDALL

I second the motion.

Sir THOMAS ESMONDE

I would like to support the motion, if I may be allowed to do so. The Senator who moved the resolution has raised what is a very interesting and, to my mind, a very important question. Whether it is possible, with the many Inquiries that are before the country at the present moment, with many Commissions sitting. or likely to sit, to proceed very rapidly with this question is another matter. At all events it is well to begin. From the point of view of trade, there is no doubt about it that if we could assimilate our system of measurements, and so forth, to the Continental systems, it would make a very great difference to us in the way of foreign trade. Before we get as far as that I think we ought to try to assimilate our local measurements, which are extremely difficult. The metric system would be a solvent of many difficulties that confront the farmer, the purveyor, the wholesale merchant, and so forth, and it would be a very great advantage if our foreign trade is to be extended. Personally, I would like to go further and have a decimal currency in this country, but these things are all in the future, and will come. As the Senator stated, they are largely decimal in the United States and metrical in South America and the greater part of Europe, so that it is only a question of time until this country will assimilate itself both as regards measurements, quantities, distances and principles of its currency to the systems prevailing generally in the world. I imagine, as time goes on, that England herself will find she will have to make some change in her arrangements in this respect. Whether we in this country can succeed in doing anything immediately, I doubt, but, at all events, there is no reason why we should not start to consider the question, and enlist public interest and public sympathy in what is a very important, very necessary and very material reform.

Mr. J.T. O'FARRELL

I should like to support this motion. The superiority of the decimal system is incontestable from the point of view of arithmetical simplicity. For this reason alone I think the motion should commend itself to the Seanad. It is a very important fact that by adopting the metric system we would save at least, I think, two years' training of the children in school. One of the great drawbacks of the English system is the lack of any connection between one set of tables and another. They are mostly of a lengthy and complicated character, and involve an incalculable waste of time in learning during school years, and are mostly forgotten shortly afterwards. For instance, given the specific gravity of a quantity of iron, the Frenchman can at once estimate its weight in volume, while the English or the Irishman would have to sit down and work it out at great length, or give it up as a hopeless task. The British system has really nothing to recommend it except the fact that it exists. It is hopelessly out of date. The foot length dates back to 958 A.D., and there are other lengths which are unintelligible to the foreigner. Almost every country has adopted the metric system, and even the United States has simplified the measurements of length by dropping the foot and the mile, while of weights it has dropped all but the lb., and uses a ton of 2,000 lbs as a standard. They have also, as every one is aware, adopted the decimal point.

The arguments are all in favour of adopting the Metric System in Ireland. The one argument for retaining the old system is that it is in existence, and that it is the one in existence in England. I find in the "Manchester Guardian Commercial" for May 3, an article which shows that even in England people are giving serious consideration to the question of adopting the Metric System. The motion, as far as it goes, does not commit us definitely to adopting the whole or any part of the system, but I certainly think there is a very strong argument in favour of making inquiries on scientific lines as to the advisability of adopting this system, which most of the other nations have found it desirable to adopt.

Motion put and agreed to.