TOO MUCH NOISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 43, 20 February 1935, Page 5

TOO MUCH NOISE.

ROWDY SYDNEY. ABATEMENT SOCIETY'S AIM. EFFECT ON POPULATION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 13. Last month the Science Congress at Melbourne, among the multifarious topics submitted to it for discussion, considered "noise in cities." This is a problem which is constantly perturbing the administrators of all modern cities, and naturally, now that Sydney boasts

nearly a million and a half inhabitants, the continual din that beats upon our ears has long since forced itself upon public attention.

We have a Noise Abatement Society whose president, Mr. Arthur Pinley —he was a resident of Christchurch many years ago and is well known in the South Island — has made vigorous attempts to secure Government assistance in dealing with this strongly pronounced "public nuisance." Last October Mr. Pinley succeeded in convening a conference of public bodies and public men to discuss this question. The proposal to invoke Government assistance in grappling with the problem was supported by "the Commissioner of Police, the officers of the Public Health Department, the Local Government Association, the Housewives' Association and the Chamber of Manufacturers, and eventually a resolution was carried to the effect that noise "capable of being prevented or mitigated, especially between 11 p.m. and 0 "a.m., shall be considered a nuisance within the meaning of the Public Health Act." Noisier Than London. None who has lived in Sydney will be prepared to deny that this is a very roisy town. From time to time Australians who have been touring abroad write to the papers to apprise us that Sydney is noisier than Paris or London, or New York or Chicago —in fact, noisier than any other city that they have ever been condemned to know. Whether this bo an exaggeration or not, there seems to be a strong body of opinion supporting it. But, of course, when an attempt U°made to analyse this "overwhelming cacophony," there is room for some difference of opinion about the elements composing it. Major Booth, of Sydney University, who is consulting physician to the New South Wales Government, has conducted a series of experiments which seem to show that the noise made by our trams —rail noises and body noises combinedform the dominant factor in this universal din. After the trams come the motor cars and motor cycles. But while the cars are largely noiseless in their movement, the drivers, especially or. motor cycles and sports cars, who delight in roaring their engines and travelling with open exhausts, arenumerous enough to make up for all modern improvements in mechanical com. etruction. The open exhaust is constantly in evidence here, and if we add

to this the constant tooting of motor horns, not simply to warn pedestrians but to attract the attention of passing cars or of friends in offices and flats, the indictment attains very large dimensions.

Drills and Radio. Add to this the incessant staccato racket of the pneumatic drill, which seems to be continuously in use for building construction and road repairing, and the more subdued but ceaseless variety of sounds produced by the radio, which appears to be on duty here with- j out respite for all our nights and days— and the resident of Sydney can hardly be blamed for claiming proud pre-eminence, in the matter of noise, over all other towns and cities whatsoever. As to the effect of this weird combination of atrocious sounds upon us, there is plenty of medical evidence to show that it is disastrous. Assuming the question, "What does noise do to you?" Mr. Pixley, as president of the N.A.S., says:—"it dislodges your hearing, it saps your nervous energy, it sows the seeds of neurosis and neurasthemia, it makes people irritable, it lowers efliciency, it promotes insomnia, it prevents children from eating and growing properly, and it shortens life."

Public Enemy No. 1. Dr. Telfer, who is medical superintendent of Sydney Hospital, said recently that people who, in spite of all remonstrances, allow their wireless sets tO| shriek at top night and day "are defi-! nitelv public enemy Xo. 1, and should be treated accordingly." He referred to the case of a man who some months ago threw himself from the Harbour Bridge, leaving a note to explain that he had been driven to death by the unceasing din of his neighbour's radio. Dr. Telfer mentioned also an interestingitem from the French criminal records, referring to a man who had shot a neighbour who persisted in leaving his radio full on. The homicide was acquitted and Dr. Telfer seems to sympathise heartily with the verdict.

Of course our N.A.S. can find plenty of precedents for the action that it is now attempting to take. In Sydney, as in other centres, direct legislation may be needed to protect the general public'against the encroachment x>i radio and motor cycle upon their ffealth and peace, and it w to be hoped that our N.A.S. will continue to importune Mr. Stevens till its requests are .granted.