The International Date Line Act 2011 (‘the Act’) commences at 12 o’clock midnight, on Thursday 29th December 2011, except for section 5(3) of the Act which commenced on 28 June 2011 (being the date of assent by the Head of State). In effect, we will be waking up on Saturday 31st December 2011, and lose one day in our lives as there will be no Friday, 30th December 2011 in the history of Samoa.

Time:

1. Samoa Standard Time will be 13 hours in advance of Co-ordinated Universal Time for the whole of Samoa.

BE IT ENACTED by the Legislative Assembly of Samoa in Parliament assembled as follows:

1. Short title and commencement-(1) This Act may be cited as the International Date Line Act 2011.
(2) Except for section 5(3) this Act commences at 12 o'clock midnight, on Thursday 29th December 2011.
(3) Section 5(3) commences on the date of assent by the Head of State.

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3. Interpretation -
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"Samoa standard time" in this Act and any other statute of Samoa which refers to 'Samoa standard time' means the time 13 hours in advance of Co-ordinated Universal Time (GMT)..

4. Samoa standard time - (1) Upon the commencement of this Act, Samoa standard time shall be set at 13 hours in advance of Co-ordinated Universal Time for the whole of Samoa.
(2) All references to Samoa's time zone and to Samoa standard time in Samoa in all legislation and instruments after the commencement of this Act shall be references to Samoa standard time as provided for in this Act.
(3) Nothing in this Act affects the provisions of the Daylight Saving Act 2009, except that it defines Samoa standard time.

5. International Date Line -
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(3) The Government of Samoa shall consult with relevant mapping and charting authorities regarding the change in Samoa standard time and the consequential moving of the International Date Line.

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It will mean that Samoa will share the same day, rather than being a day behind Australia and New Zealand.

Tuila’epa says there will even be a tourist spin-off due to the fact that Samoa and American Samoa will now be divided by the Dateline.

People wanting two birthdays or two wedding anniversaries can travel to Samoa and have them.

Tiny Samoa, if not intent on stealing a march on the rest of the world, has set its sights on stealing time: 24 hours to be precise.

This is because at present it sits just east of the international date line, which runs through the middle of the Pacific, and is 11 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).   It is one of the last places on Earth to see the end of any particular day.

More pertinently, its horological situation places it at temporal odds with all its major trading partners in Asia and Australasia, which sit on the other side of the dateline.

Thus, while Auckland (New Zealand) starts work bright and early on Monday morning, it it Sunday morning in Apia; and by the time the week trundles around to Friday in the Pacific nation, it is already Saturday in Sydney (Australia).

Effectively, this allows four coincident working weekdays for the trading partners to do all their business - to the substantial economic disadvantage of Samoa.

It is not known whether he experienced his “eureka moment” while lying in the bath, but the answer, according to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malieligaoi, is quite startling in its simplicity: switch time zones so Samoa lies just to the west of the dateline.

Such a move would take it from being 23 hours behind New Zealand to one hour ahead.

This “correction”, reversing a 120-year-old decision made when Samoa’s major trading partners - and thus its preferred time alignment - were the United States and Europe, will mean the small Pacific Island nation becomes a country of firsts: no longer will Mt Hikurangi on the East Coast of the North Island be first to see the new day’s sun, nor the Chatham Islands be first to welcome millennia.