NOISE NUISANCE IN AUSTRALIA

Evening Star, Issue 21718, 12 May 1934, Page 4

NOISE NUISANCE IN AUSTRALIA

Recent complaints to suburban councils have Focussed public attention on the radio noise nuisance (cables the Sydney correspondent of the Auckland 4 Herald ’). The question of control seemed to bo wrapped in the word 11 reasonableness.” Some of the local government authorities- believe that if a radio is allowed to roar above the pitch of a human voice, as normally used in a flat or house, it becomes a nuisance. So far no council has been brave enough to test the matter in the courts, but it would seem that this must *be done sooner or later. The councils have full power to control and regulate all houses and promises so as to prevent objectionable noises, but probably they would need a court interpretation of the word 14 objectionable.” The councils have been in a quandary, but are determined now to intensify Iho campaign against nuisances.

Some interesting comments on the physiological causes and reactions of the noisy radio were made this week by the medical superintendent of the Sydney Hospital (Dr Telfer). 44 Some men,” ho said. “ have a primitive, even fiendish, desire for din in moments of relaxation, but the general cause is not physiological—except in isolated cases of partial deafness—so much as psychological. Men who allow their radio' sots to create a din that penetrates beyond the walls of their homes do it mostly because they are selfish I v unmindful of the consideration of others, and vain. I should say they are definitely Public Enemy No. 1, and should be treated accordingly. 1 have no specific cases of radio nerves in the hospital, but' I should imagine you would find a great many of them in the asylums. As a doctor I can understand a man being reduced to such a state of 1 nerves ’ that he might think of desperate measures.”