SYDNEY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 58, 9 March 1928, Page 9

SYDNEY

••> , CITY OF DREADFUL NOISE (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 16th February. Someone has suggested tho establishment of an Anti-Noise Society in Sydnoy. Tho idea is not nearly so fatuous as it may appear to outsiders, since oven tho Civic Commission is endeavouring, by regulation,, to lessen tho city's noises. Sydney, as a matter of fact, is ono of tho "noisiest cities in the world; even its most ardent euampions will not dispute that. What it will be like in another decade no one dares even to try o picture. It is only.it night that something liko silence steals down over it, and then, contrary to popular outside bolicf, it is so quiet and deserted, say between 11 o'clock and midnight, that ono could almost foe a bullet down its main streets without'harm. It ia practically bar© then, oven _, of thea-tre-goers. It is those who pursue their lawful occasions in tho crowded city all day who are subjected to the nervedestroying experience o.f a thousand and one noises which, if they could be assessed economically in their influence .upon the individual, would represent a startling physical loss. The trams are the chief offenders. If there are noiser trams anywhere else Sydney would be interested to learn .of them. It would like to see them removed from the city streets. Even traffic authorities admit that the city is no place for what is really a light system of railways; but the difficulty is to find some other means of transport to cope with the crowds. Much of tho nois© in the city ia needless, and could easily bo avoided. Then there is also all tho noise associated with rebuilding operations going on everywhere. The collective noiso of legion motor horns, too, could be \far less and just as effective..ln a. city of dreadful noise such as Sydney there could be far worse things than the body suggested.