Pitcairn at UTC-8; Pangnirtung split; old news from eastern Europe

[Paul Eggert]

Rives McDow reports that Pitcairn has moved to UTC-8.  McDow also
reports about the controversy about time zones in Pangnirtung.  I
enclose his reports below.

For the tz databse, I'm inclined to leave Pangnirtung along for now
(as I don't want to argue with the Mounties :-).  I would like to wait
for confirmation about Pitcairn from my second-hand ham radio contact
before posting a proposed patch.

While we're on the subject of proposed updates, in my spare time I've
been plowing through Shanks's latest data on the time zone changes in
the ex Soviet Union, and plan to incorporate some of them in the next
proposed patch.  Among other things, he claims:

* Far eastern Siberia switched to UTC+12 in 1982, so Asia/Anadyr's
  current UTC+13 zone entry is incorrect.

* Ruthenia used UTC+1 in 1990/1991, so it should get a new Zone.
  I assume Uzhgorod should be the canonical representative.

* Central Crimea switched from UTC+3 to UTC+2 on 1996-10-27 03:00.

* Some regions of Ukraine other than Crimea used UTC+3 in the early
  1990s, apparently diagreeing with both Kiev and Crimea.  I don't yet
  have a good characterization of these regions; presumably they were
  in the east.  Large cities don't seem to be involved.  It may be
  difficult to pick a canonical candidate, so I may just leave this
  as commentary.

* Most of the Soviet Union advanced its clocks by one hour at
  1930-06-20 24:00, and didn't ever switch them back.  (The previous
  tables had this event occurring in 1957.)  This matches a story I've
  heard about Stalin ordering the start of DST and never ordering its
  end, with his underlings understandably wary of bugging him about
  the issue.

* Lots of other changes before 1930.

------- Start of forwarded message -------
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 14:38:56 -0800
From: "Rives McDow" <rmcdow at enteles.com>

Dear Paul,

    I saw your question about Pitcairn Island, and have the answer here from
the Commissioner for Pitcairn:

A Proclamation was signed by the Governor of Pitcairn on the 27th March
1998 with regard to Pitcairn Standard Time.  The Proclamation is as
follows.
The local time for general purposes in the Islands shall be Co-ordinated
Universal time minus 8 hours and shall be known as Pitcairn Standard Time.


    The secretary to the commissioner did not clarify if the change happened
on the 27th; I am now checking that, and double checking the offset with
other sources on Pitcairn.  The proclamation says that the change was to UTC
minus 8 hours and not 9 hours, but this is the first I have heard of that.
I have also seen Pitcairn listed as UTC minus 9 hours in several references,
and can only assume that this was an error in interpretation somehow in
light of this proclamation.

    The second time zone matter concerns Nunavut, specifically Pangnirtung.
I don't know if you follow the news in Canada, but last night there was an
interesting bit on Pangnirtung's use of time.  On October 31, when the rest
of Nunavut went to Central time, Pangnirtung wobbled.  Here is the result of
their wobble:

The following businesses and organizations in Pangnirtung use Central Time:

First Air
Power Corp
Nunavut Construction
Health Center
RCMP
Eastern Arctic National Parks
A & D Specialist

The following businesses and organizations in Pangnirtung use Eastern Time:

Hamlet office
All other businesses
Both schools
Airport operator

    This has made for an interesting situation there, which warranted the
news.  No one there that I spoke with seems concerned, or has plans to
change the local methods of keeping time, as it evidently does not really
interfere with any activities or make things difficult locally.  They plan
to celebrate New Year's turn-over twice, one hour apart, so it appears that
the situation will last at least that long.  The Nunavut Intergovernmental
Affairs hopes that they will "come to their senses", but the locals
evidently don't see any problem with the current state of affairs.

Sincerely,

Rives McDow
------- End of forwarded message -------


------- Start of forwarded message -------
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 06:48:13 -0800
Subject: Pitcairn
From: "Rives McDow" <rmcdow at enteles.com>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert at twinsun.com>



Dear Paul,

    I received a reply about Pitcairn.  The Proclamation regarding Pitcairn
time came into effect on 27 April 1998.  I wasn't told the time of day, but
I think it is safe for now to assume 0:00 on the 27th.  I inquired about
this, but don't know if I will get a reply back from a populace of 50
people.

    If you want to post this and the previous information to the mailing
list, edited as you see fit, feel free to do so.

    Sincerely,

    Rives McDow
------- End of forwarded message -------