Noisy Neighbours

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32220, 12 February 1970, Page 12

Noisy Neighbours

Lord Byron noted with approval the “ sound of “ revelry by night ”. Not so the Auckland City Council, which is considering a by-law to control nojsy parties and other noisy nuisances. Few persons object to occasional party noise from the homes of otherwise considerate neighbours: but this is very different from the intolerable nuisance of repeated noisy parties which in Auckland —and no doubt elsewhere —has driven people from their homes. Yet parties are not the worst source of the noise which increasingly assails city dw’ellers. even in the privacy of their homes Motor vehicles, aircraft, and motor lawnmowers must share the blame for irritating and even painful disturbances. Another Auckland local body, the Papakura Borough Council, intends to limit the hours of work of “ do-it-yourself ” boatbuilders whose pow’er tools have disturbed the sleep of neighbours.

Attempts by individual local bodies to control noise are commendable: and the Auckland experiments will be watched with interest by other councils. The battle for peace and quiet, however, will eventually have to be fought on a wider front. It may be time for the Government to consider setting national standards on noise abatement which could then be adopted—and enforced —by local bodies. It will not be easy to set permissible levels of noise and to detect offenders: that is not a good reason for letting a social evil grow unchecked. Each person can do something to lower the level of noise. The pity is that some may require legal compulsion to make the effort.