NOISY NOISES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 83, 20 March 1928, Page 4

NOISY NOISES.

Even in our comparatively small urban communities of Hawke's Bay there are times when high-strung nerves revolt against the unnecessary noises to which they are subjected. But they are as nothing to those to which a visit to one of our large cities expoits them. And, of course, the noises of even the larger cities of the Dominion are as nothing to those developed in the really big industrial and commercial cities of the world. A good deal of attention has of late been drawn to this continually growing evil, and to its likely effects upou both the mental and the physical eiticiency of the human victims who have to endure it. One of the philosophers of the Victorian era is quoted us having declured that you mignt gauge the intellectual capacity of a man by the degree of his intolerance of unnecessary noises. The point of this dictum is in the word “unnecessary”.

For a noise, however unpleasant which is recognised by the subcon-

scious mind as necessary or inevitable—such at the more familial

sounds of Nature—is at once accepted and presently disregarded. But a noise which is unnecessary—as the steady beating of a tin can—immediately becomes an irritant of the most aggravating kind. It is becoming pretty generally recognised among competent stuuents ol the reactions of surrounding conditions upon the intelligent uuman being that the noise and strife ot city life are becoming a menace to the health and well-being of citizens. The grinding roar and rattle of the trams rise as a wall of discord against which all the lesser city noises beat stridently like a sharp staccato of hail in a thunderstorm. There are the

shrieks and hoots of motor cars, the rumble of trams, the harsh changing of gears of motor lorries, the squealing of brakes, the nerve-racking uproar of motor-cycles, and a myriad other blasts and whistles and banging that tend to make city life intolerable. If noise—and mere noise is a thing against which reason is useless —is to increase as much in the next ten years as it has in the past decade, it will become utterly unendurable. Modern civilisation takes extreme care to protect us in a hundred different ways, but when it comes to protecting us from outrages on our sense of hearing it fails lamentably. Mere noise can be most damaging to nervous people, “Health,” a London publication, says that noise is fast becoming a national danger. “Gramo phones, loud-speakers and raucous music,” says that journal, “are making life hideous. Apparently noise has become a necessity of modern home life. This causes nervous ailments and breakdowns, neurotic tendencies and mental disorders.” It is only fair to add that eminent physicians have challenged this statement, but there can be no controverting tho fact that the din of the city’s streets is increasing, and that it has a very inimical effect on the nerves and general health of the community. The fact that noise does not produce any visible effect on the human body possibly blinds the general public to the injury that it inflicts. We can all of us see the damage done if a man gets a punch in the face, but we do not see the permanent injury done to human nerves and human brains by the constant noise to which we are subjected under modern conditions of city life.