<P> In the late 1940s the atomic clock was developed and several laboratories began atomic time scales . A new time scale known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was adopted internationally in 1972 . This was based on the readings of atomic clocks, updated periodically in accordance with time variations in the Earth's rotation by the addition or deletion of seconds (called leap seconds). The Time Act 1974 defines New Zealand Standard Time as 12 hours in advance of UTC . </P> <P> In 2011, the New Zealand dependency of Tokelau moved its time zone forward by 24 hours, by skipping 30 December . </P> <P> Starting in 1909, the Honourable Sir Thomas Kay Sidey annually put forward a bill to advance the clocks an hour from September to the following March and The Summer Time Act 1927 succeeded: first Sunday in November to the first Sunday in March . This proved unpopular so The Summer Time Act 1928 revised this to a half - hour shift from 14 October 1928 (second Sunday) to 17 March 1929 (third Sunday), then The Summer Time Act 1929 fixed this half - hour shift to run from the second Sunday in October to the third Sunday in March . In 1933, the period was extended from the first Sunday in September to the last Sunday in April . This continued until the Second World War, when emergency regulations in 1941 extended daylight saving to cover the whole year with annual re-applications until the Standard Time Act of 1945 made the abandonment of NZMT permanent in 1946, so that 180 ° becomes the base longitude and what was called NZ Summer Time (NZST) became NZ Standard Time . </P> <P> The Time Act 1974 empowered the Governor - General to declare by Order in Council a period when daylight saving time is to be observed . This was a one - hour shift (on top of the earlier half hour shift) from the first Sunday in November to the last Sunday in February, promptly changed the next year by The New Zealand Time Order 1975 which fixed the period of observance from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in March . </P>

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